From the website of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on December 10, 2012:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) called Harry Hopper, the Chairman of the Board of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, to thank him for the decision announced today to keep the Corcoran in the District of Columbia. She has released the following statement on the board’s decision.

“Like many residents and art lovers, I am overjoyed that the Corcoran has found a way to remain in the city where it was born and was always meant to be. For us, it was inconceivable that our oldest art museum, established here when the city was bereft of culture, would leave the city of its birth. The nation’s capital has helped nourish the Corcoran with countless visitors who come to see the Washington Monument and are told they must also go to the Corcoran. We could no more conceive of the Corcoran moving out of town than the National Gallery of Art picking up roots and leaving the nation’s capital. I am grateful to the Corcoran’s board and the partners who have come forward to help secure the Corcoran’s place in the nation’s capital, as well as to the Corcoran students, art community, and the larger D.C. community who played a role in encouraging the Corcoran’s final decision. Notwithstanding what I am sure are many tough steps ahead, those of us who were discouraged at the possibility that the Corcoran would leave Washington must do all we can to assist the Corcoran to achieve its goals and to reward its courageous decision. Today, though, we are simply grateful to the board for deciding that not only the Corcoran’s priceless art collection but the Corcoran building, itself a work of art, will remain here in its rightful place – the nation’s capital.”