Are other colleges and universities in Western Virginia holding art treasures like those Randolph College now wants to sell?

The short answer is “No,” although most local colleges do have art collections and a few, such as Washington and Lee University, have some real gems.

“They’re very strong in American art. We’re strong in portraiture,” said W&L’s director of university collections, Peter Grover. “But we don’t have anything like a Bellows,” he said, referring to the George Bellows painting “Men of the Docks,” which has been valued at an estimated $25 million to $35 million.

“Men of the Docks” is one of four Randolph College paintings that will go on the auction block next month. “That’s just sad,” Grover said of the sale.

Many four-year colleges have art collections, and some have great ones. The Yale University Art Gallery, for example, contains not just American paintings, but works by famous European artists dating to the Renaissance and earlier.

Collections around here are more modest. Here’s what a quick survey found:

Hollins University

The university has a 1,200-piece collection ranging from Renaissance work to the photographs of Hollins graduate Sally Mann, said Wyona Lynch-McWhite , director of Hollins’ Eleanor D. Wilson Museum.

She declined to name individual artworks. “Because of the breadth of our collection, I don’t think I could do it justice by focusing on any one piece as being more significant than any other.”

She said the museum has an acquisitions policy that “follows standard museum practice” when it comes to acquiring or de-accessioning, or removing and selling, art. The American Association of Museums code of ethics states that money from the sale of museum artifacts shall only be used for more acquisitions or for care of the collection.

Radford University

Among other things, Radford has pictures from dyed yarn done by artists from Mexico’s Huichol culture, prints and watercolors by Minnesota-born artist Adolf Dehn and works by Dorothy Gillespie , a university distinguished professor.

Gallery director Preston Thayer said the works, which belong to the university’s foundation, would not be sold.

Roanoke College

Highlights include a collection of paintings and watercolors by homegrown artist and illustrator Walter Biggs , a brass relief by surrealist Salvador Dali, a paper sculpture by Roanoke-born Dorothy Gillespie and modern canvasses by New York City artist Hunt Slonem.

“We have a great collection of folk art,” added gallery director Talia Logan . The collection also includes student works, often by default. “We have a student show every year, and sometimes they don’t come back for them,” she said.

As for the college using its art to raise money, the collection is “essentially for the school and its students,” Logan said. “I really wouldn’t foresee anything being sold off.”

Virginia Tech

Tech has a painting by N.C. Wyeth , “Pennsylvania Barn,” currently on loan to the Art Museum of Western Virginia, and a painting of George Washington surveying, done by 20th-century illustrator Frank Schoonover.

It also has a collection of works by local and regional artists and other odds and ends donated by one-time Tech reference librarian Miles Horton, which his wife, Ruth, has called an “accumulation” rather than a collection.

The truth is, “the university doesn’t have a collection, per se,” Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said. “We don’t have a curator. We would like to have a big collection, and someday we think we will have a big collection, but right now, we’re just not in the same category” as Randolph College.

Hincker said it was hardly worth speculating about whether Tech would ever sell art to raise money, because it has other assets worth much more. But he also said it would ultimately depend on the terms of the agreement with the donor.

Washington and Lee University

W&L has a wide-ranging collection dating to its beginnings in 1749. Highlights include Chinese-made pottery from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Chinese fan paintings, a painting, “Lake Vista,” by Hudson River School painter Jasper Cropsey and valuable portraits of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart and Charles Willson Peale.

“All museums de-accession works of art,” Grover said in an e-mail, when asked if the school’s artworks could be sold. “W&L has sold paintings through the auction process, and the proceeds used for the care and maintenance of the collections as outlined by the American Association of Museums. “We would never sell the icons in our collection.”

On another note, RSO opener a success

The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra distributed 1,530 tickets to its Opening Night Masterworks concert at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre on Oct. 15, a 207-ticket increase over last year, RSO marketing director Rodney Overstreet said.

By contrast, only about 400 people showed up for the RSO’s “Great American Concert” in the same venue on Oct. 6. That concert was part of the Roanoke Arts Festival.

Reasons for the disparity in sales are still murky, but may be marketing related. The Oct. 6 concert was not included in the RSO’s season ticketing packages, and was marketed largely by the festival.

“We didn’t really publicize it,” Overstreet said.