SALEM — The Peabody Essex Museum has purchased the Marine Arts Gallery at 135 Essex St. for $1.4 million, after years of failing to close a deal on the property.
According to PEM Marketing Director Jay Finney, the owners, the Kiernan family, approached the museum six to eight months ago. A purchase agreement was signed this week. It allows the gallery to remain in the building for the next six months. In the meantime, the Kiernan family is expected to seek a new location on the North Shore.
"We've always been interested in that property, just 10 feet away from our front door," said Finney.
About 14 years ago, the museum was in the middle of a historic $200 million expansion when it ran up against an immovable object named Russell Kiernan, then owner of the gallery, who lived in an upstairs apartment and refused to sell his building to the PEM. Located on the edge of land where the museum was expanding, the Marine Arts Gallery was soon largely surrounded by museum construction equipment.
Kiernan, who died last January at age 86, was a kind of small business David taking arms against both the museum Goliath and City Hall. He not only declined to sell but brought the museum to court in unsuccessful efforts to stop the expansion.
