Wednesday, May 29, 2013

What Do You Think? Should the Georgia Museum of Art Deaccession or Not?

La Robe de la Mariée (The Wedding Dress)

Here's your chance to chime in, although I'm tempted to think that you have to be a resident of the state of Georgia in order for your two-cents to have any value.

Regardless, Lynn Boland, Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, wants to know what you think about her proposal to deaccession four of five paintings by Bernard Smol (French, 1897–1969), mainly because there hasn't been much interest in his works since, let's say, approximately 1960. 



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Saturday, May 25, 2013

Museum Visitors to Vote on Which Work Not to Deaccession

Democracy in action.

Due to limited storage space and evolving collecting philosophy, the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia staff has decided to “deaccession,” or remove from its collection, all but one of Smol’s works. Visitors will be able to vote on which one they would like the museum to keep, and curatorial staff will take those votes into consideration.
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Friday, May 24, 2013

Will the Detroit Institute of Arts sell its collection to cover its $15 billion debt?

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.

Oh, oh. This is not going to be very popular, at all. 

But this isn't going to go down without a fight. DIA Executive Vice President Annmarie Erickson said the museum has hired New York bankruptcy attorney Richard Levin of Cravath, Swaine & Moore to advise ways to protect the collection from possible losses. 

“We are standing by our contention and belief that we hold the collection in trust for the public,” Erickson said this evening. “And although to some it may seem to be an asset, we do not.”


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