The Board of Directors of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts has called off the sale of Deniz Palas following the Eczacıbaşı Group's pledge to assume all of the Foundation's debt. IKSV will pay off the entire amount of its debt using the Eczacıbaşı Group's new donation of TL 46 million and maintain its offices and activities in its current building. It will also commit to not putting the building on the market again for the next 10 years.
IKSV Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı held a press meeting at Deniz Palas to announce the decision. Noting the public's sensitivity about the proposed sale of IKSV's administrative building, he said, "We see that the art-loving public care about IKSV. They watch our Foundation very closely; they do not want IKSV to dispose of assets that are part of its identity and expect the same sensitivity from IKSV's administration."
Mr. Eczacıbaşı said that the Board of Directors was delighted by the public's response to the developments of the previous month, because it proved how much the art-loving community embraced and appreciated IKSV. "We did not believe we should ignore this sensitivity, so at the beginning of last week, the Eczacıbaşı Group developed a solution that would resolve the problem and presented it to IKSV's Board of Directors, which unanimously accepted the proposal at its meeting of 22 November."
With this decision, IKSV will be completely cleared of its debt, which has represented the single largest restraint on its culture and art activities. With this new donation of TL 46 million, the Eczacıbaşı Group will have donated a total of TL 58 million, excluding sponsorship fees, to IKSV over the last four years.
The decision to sell Deniz Palas and move the Foundation to a more modest venue was taken in mid-October. IKSV put the building on the market on 24 October and began receiving offers soon after, with the expectation of finalizing this process on 29 November. The sale was cancelled when the Eczacıbaşı Group offered to assume IKSV's debt.