Beaverbrook Foundation to Auction 48 Art Works It Gained Title to In Legal Battle

Britain’s Beaverbrook Foundation is consigning the 48 art works it was given title to in September at the conclusion of a lengthy and expensive legal battle to Sotheby’s auctioneers in New York and London.

Sotheby’s confirmed Friday that it would sell the works at a series of auctions set for December this year and January 2010. The 48 pieces were among the 133 that the foundation and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, N.B., fought over for more than six years.

Via The Globe and Mail.

Beaverbrook Foundation to Auction 48 Art Works It Gained Title to In Legal Battle

It's Not Deaccessioning By Any Stretch

Here's another sign as to how strict (and emotional) anti-deaccessionist rules only foster creative ways as to how museums sell art from their collection for fund-raising purposes.

The "new" way? The city of Denver may sell four Still paintings to fund a major operations endowment to ensure the Clifford Still Museum's long-term viability. Isn't this move prohibited by the AAMD and anti-deaccessionists?

Clyfford Still Museum director Dean Sobel believes the established AAMD anti-deaccessioning guidelines do not apply to it. Why? According to The Denver Post, it's a technicality.

The privately funded museum, which is set to open late next year, has not yet officially taken possession of the pieces. They were bequeathed to the city of Denver when Still's widow, Patricia, died in 2005. The museum petitioned a Maryland county court on Nov. 3 to permit the estate of Patricia Still, which has yet to be distributed, to release the four works early — before the formal transfer of ownership occurs.

[T]he museum believes the good outweighs any bad. The money would create a major endowment that would assure the museum's long-term financial viability. It would cover not only exhibition costs and general expenses but also publications, research and symposia that would ensure it a key place in American art scholarship.

According to Sobel, the four Still paintings are to be sold as a group, and only to another museum. The rest of the story, and a great Q&A regarding possible outcomes is available via The Denver Post here.

It's Not Deaccessioning By Any Stretch

Chicago Art Magazine on Deaccessioning

Chicago Art Magazine continues their analysis on deaccessioning. Here's the second part of their series.

We previously discussed the basics of the accessioning and deaccesioning processes art museums go through in dealing with their collections, but what about the specifics? A delicate process such as deaccessioning certainly raises a few questions including issues of transparency, maintaining the public trust, and the debate as to whether the current guidelines are enough to keep museum art collections from becoming mere commodities.

Chicago Art Magazine on Deaccessioning

My Thoughts on Deaccessioning Via WNYC

It's been super busy, so apologies for the belated post.

Marlon Bishop, of WNYC, interviewed me on Tuesday, October 19, for a story on deaccessioning. The radio version came out on Wednesday, October 20, but you can read Bishop’s article, Art Deaccessioning: Right or Wrong?, on WNYC’s website, as well as hear a few soundbites from me; Kaywin Feldman, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and director of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts; and anti-deaccessionist, Lee Rosenbaum.

I will elaborate more on deaccessioning here and on my other blog, Clancco, soon. What do you think? Deaccession or not? Is there a middle ground?

My Thoughts on Deaccessioning Via WNYC

National Academy and AAMD Friends Again

After nearly two years of museum-world ostracism because it sold two prized 19th century American landscape paintings for about $15 million to relieve a financial crisis, Manhattan’s venerable National Academy Museum & School is being accepted back into the The Assn. of Art Museum Directors.

Why the ostracism? The general public and media consensus: "Keeping art for the public's enjoyment and study is the reason for having tax-exempt art museums in the first place, and failing to do that in the case of the Church and Gifford paintings is what brought down sanctions on the National Academy."

Via the LA Times.

National Academy and AAMD Friends Again

Good Riddance!

The New York State Board of Regents on Tuesday approved the expiration of emergency regulations prohibiting museums from selling art to cover operating costs.

Last month the board indicated it planned to make the emergency regulations permanent, in part because a bill to prohibit cultural institutions from selling pieces from their collections to pay for expenses had stalled in the Legislature.

Via The NY Times.

Good Riddance!

Finally, Some Deaccessioning Thunder!

After a long deaccessioning silence, we have two great articles from the WSJ and the NY Times.

The WSJ reported today that the "Chelsea museum could face the loss of its charter or referral to the state attorney general's office following disclosure that its entire permanent collection of artwork was pledged as collateral for a loan needed to pay its mortgage."

Bad news for the Chelsea Museum, but good news for other art museums and art institutions. The NY Times reports that the dreaded Brodsky Bill and legislation making the deaccessioning process illegal is pretty much dead.

The bill’s Senate sponsor, José M. Serrano, said he withdrew support after hearing feedback from cultural institutions. “We all saw that a one-size-fits-all approach was not going to work,” he said. “I didn’t think that we would be able to make wholesale changes to the bill that would make it palatable for everyone.”

Good news indeed!

Finally, Some Deaccessioning Thunder!