The recent article by Jo Ann Lewis {"The Estate of the Art," Sunday Arts, July 30} raises a huge question in my mind and surely in the guts of the current commissioners at the National Museum of American Art.

A general rule of any code of ethics is that if something feels funny or unethical, then it probably is. Add a corollary -- if an action, whether ethical or not, gives the appearance of being unethical, then it is -- and you have a problem with the NMAA and its legacy from the late artist Gene Davis.

In the generous arrangement described in the article, Davis left his entire estate to the NMAA. This means hundreds of pieces of art as well as money and property. As Lewis points out, the unusual twist -- and a clear conflict of interest for the museum -- is that Davis gave the NMAA freedom on what to keep and what to sell.