The bankrupt city is expected to learn this week the value of roughly 2,800 of its pieces at the Detroit Institute of Arts when New York auction house Christie's delivers its final report.

The federal fingerprint in efforts to fix Detroit is growing larger as the Obama administration has found millions of dollars in grant money to help the bankrupt city hire more police and firefighters, and clear out blighted neighborhoods.

Four of President Obama's top advisers will converge on Detroit Friday to meet privately with state and local leaders about ways the federal government can help the bankrupt city short of a bailout.

The city's biggest employee union, retirees and even a few dozen residents filed objections Monday to Detroit's request for bankruptcy protection, the largest municipal filing in U.S. history and a move aimed at wiping away billions of dollars in debt.

Banks, bond insurers, employee pension systems and others standing to lose big if a federal judge declares Detroit insolvent are expected to legally file their objections to the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

A bankruptcy expert hired by the state to stop Detroit's fiscal free-fall made the Chapter 9 filing Thursday in federal bankruptcy court.

The first report by Detroit's emergency manager declares that the city is broke and at risk of running completely out of money a financial meltdown that could mean employees don't get paid, retirees lose their pensions and residents endure even deeper cuts in municipal services.

Michigan voters will decide next week on a labor-backed ballot proposal that would strengthen municipal workers' union rights, even as some deficit-plagued cities look to cut pay and other benefits negotiated through collective bargaining.