FOLEY, Ala. — One of the business items on a rather small city council agenda in September 2008 was the city’s intention to sell a huge painting that once hung in the Foley Public Library. The painting, depicting the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, had been given to FPL years before by former mayor Arthur Holk.

Now, nearly two years later, a Baldwin County Circuit Judge has ruled that Holk should retain ownership of the painting that has been valued at approximately $200,000.

Judge Charles Partin made the ruling last week after Holk and the City of Foley each presented their claims earlier this year to the painting.

Asked this week if the city was disappointed in Partin’s ruling, Mayor John Koniar said, “Yes and no. Mainly we wanted closure in this matter.”

Koniar said the city accepts Partin’s ruling, and the painting has been returned to Holk, a longtime mayor of Foley, who stepped down from office in 1998.

Numerous attempts to contact Holk this week failed.

At the 2008 council meeting, Koniar said the city didn’t need a $200,000 painting. He added the painting deserved to be cared for better than the city could do. It was noted then that it would require $3,600 annually to insure the painting, which at one point hung in the conference room at Foley City Hall.

After learning of the council’s action regarding selling the painting, Holk said he was “totally shocked and surprised.”

In the aftermath of the council’s move to sell the painting, Holk said in comments that the manager of the Grand Hotel on the Eastern Shore had given him the painting when the hotel was being remodeled. Holk said he, in turn, gave the painting to the library and it was not to be sold.

Koniar said this week that the length of time Partin took to deliberate on the painting litigation was a reflection of the judge’s careful consideration in making the ruling.