Tiffany Window Sale

by Elizabeth McNamara | Jun 19, 2025 | EG News

Our Tiffany window has found a new home—and it’s making headlines! East Greenwich News recently featured a thoughtful article about the window’s history and sale, complete with a link to an Art News story that gives national context to this treasured piece of our past. We’re grateful for the legacy it leaves behind and the bright future it helps us build.

The window was donated to the church in 1910 in honor of William Goddard

Several parishioners of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church were in New York last Thursday, June 12, at the Christie’s auction house, and another 30 or so were gathered in the dining room at St. Luke’s, 99 Peirce St., watching the auction’s live stream. The parish had a very vested interest in a particular item up for sale that afternoon – a window by Tiffany Studios donated to St. Luke’s in 1910 by Mary Edith Jenckes Goddard, in memory of her husband William Goddard. William Goddard (1825-1907), was the 10th chancellor of Brown University and scion of the Goddard, Ives, and Brown families (think Ives Road and Goddard Park).

The window was placed on the north side of the sanctuary, closer to the altar, where it lived for 115 years, a singular beauty portraying a pastoral scene through three seasons – spring, summer and fall. 

Then, in 2021, then-Rector Tim Rich received a surprising offer – a private museum in Texas was interested in acquiring the window and offered $2 million. The offer came at a moment in time when the church was especially feeling its lack of a significant endowment. Many larger churches have endowments where the interest can fund ongoing expenses and help cover maintenance costs. St. Luke’s is one of thousands of churches around the country with a gorgeous old building that’s costly to maintain. 

Fr. Tim brought the offer to the vestry (aka board of directors) and they were interested. The next step was to raise the possible sale to the congregation at large. Not surprisingly, some parishioners had serious concerns about a sale. After all, the window had been donated for the church. What would it mean to sell such a donation? Others were less conflicted, arguing that the money gained from such a sale could help fund ministry programs going forward and provide needed money to help care for the overall building. 

After a couple of parish-wide meetings, it was decided to sell the window. 

Then, plot twist, the Texas museum owner backed out! 

Suddenly, St. Luke’s understood it possibly had a gold mine on its hands but no buyer. Parishioner Stacey Nakasian, a lawyer, had gotten involved at this point and she said the church then decided to sign a contract with Bonhams, the auction house that had been representing the Texas buyer. Bonhams seemed to think it could find another buyer at $2 million. But months passed and no buyer surfaced. The window team at St. Luke’s was feeling low. 

Then, last November, Sotheby’s auction house sold a Tiffany stained glass window (the Danner Memorial Window) for a record $12.5 million. The Goddard window is really three 6-foot tall windows, or lancets as they are called. (The Danner window is significantly bigger, one large window, 16 feet in height.) The team at St. Luke’s decided it was time to consider having the window put up for auction. Christie’s proved to be the winning house for the auction, offering an additional 10 percent on top of whatever the final “hammer price” would be. The auction house thought the Goddard window would sell for between $2 million and $3 million dollars.   

The parish said goodbye to the window in March, offering a prayer of thanksgiving that final Sunday for the window’s long service in the church. The St. Luke’s team was hopeful but nervous.

“The risk of losing it and not getting what we wanted, that kept me stirred up,” said Deborah Collins, the senior warden (equivalent to the board chair). Yet, she said, there was a feeling that “if we don’t do this [try auctioning the window], we’ll probably always feel we left money on the table.”

Collins was among those who traveled to New York to attend the auction at Christie’s. The staff at Christie’s worked to make them feel comfortable, she said, but the anticipation was difficult. The Goddard window was one of the last items auctioned that day. It had a “reserve price” of $1.8 million, meaning the window would not be sold if it didn’t get at least that much. 

As Stacey Nakasian, who was also in New York that day, noted in her remarks to the congregation after the auction, “Christie’s had set the value between $2 and $3 million but there was no guarantee it would go for that level. So, when the bidding quickly surpassed $1.8 million and reached above $2 million, the tears started flowing for those of us in the auction room. When it surpassed the high estimate of $3 million, we could all start breathing again. Then the hammer came down at $3.5 million to applause throughout the auction room.”

Because of the 10 percent premium Christie’s had offered to help convince St. Luke’s to go with them, that actually means the church will get $3.85 million. 

Collins said she was overwhelmed by the result and thrilled for the church. 

It’s been almost four years since that first offer from Texas. “This was a journey that took its time so the right thing could happen,” Collins said. She credited Nakasian, Bill Clement, Bill Warburton, and others with shepherding the window to the final sale. 

Nakasian described the last several years as a roller coaster ride. She told the congregation she thought there were two reasons for the final successful sale: “This community – it couldn’t have happened without the support and faith of all of you. And the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

The money from the sale is earmarked for endowment to ensure that our vibrant and growing congregation can continue the work it does in EG and beyond. 

The parish has commissioned a Vermont artist to design a new window for the church. The church does not know who bought the Goddard window, but it’s nice to think that some day it will be in a public space where it can once again provide the solace and comfort it offered at St. Luke’s for 115 years.

Here’s a writeup about the sale in ARTnews.