ART SALES: Deaccessioning

▪ 1994

      In the second half of the 20th century, and particularly from the 1970s on, deaccessioning, the sale by a museum of works from its permanent collection, has raised ethical questions. Faced with rising costs, museums began to consider selling art objects to fund administrative and building costs. While deaccessioning to improve the collection has not usually been controversial, selling works of art to pay running costs has caused debate.

      The Museums Association of the United Kingdom defines a museum as a non-profit-making institution for the public benefit with an ethic of public service. Its policy on deaccessioning is defined by acts of Parliament that specifically prohibit disposal of items in the most important national collections. Where no specific act governs a particular collection, a museum is not permitted to deaccession without court or other legal authority. The aim of such deaccessioning should be to offer an object by exchange or gift to other institutions before sale is considered. The American Association of Museums defines a museum in similar terms. Moreover, its policy on deaccessioning is that disposal of artworks should be only for advancement of the museum's mission through improving and enhancing its collections.

      Commercial and financial considerations, coupled with the often spectacular rise in the value of works of art, have put severe pressure on such policies. In 1991, for example, there was a public row in Sweden following revelations that the directors of the Göteborg Art Museum secretly intended to raise £ 20 million by selling Picasso's "The Harlequin's Family," one of his most important works and the museum's star and most valuable exhibit. In Britain similar controversies raged over the announcement by Royal Holloway College of the University of London that to provide for general expenses, it would sell a Turner work from its fine collection of Victorian paintings.

      The Boston Museum of Fine Arts conceived a novel way to solve the problem: paintings that could not be sold might be rented out. This developed further the recent tendency for permanent collections to lend works to profit-making touring shows. The Courtauld Institute sent some of its finest works on tour a few years ago to raise funds for the conversion of its new gallery at Somerset House in London. The 1993 traveling show from the Barnes Foundation had a similar motive.

      The Boston scheme envisaged the proposed opening of a "sister" museum in Nagoya, Japan, where the Museum of Fine Arts would send a semipermanent introductory exhibition. The arrangement would result in a hefty consulting fee for Boston, which, it was hoped, might quickly eliminate the museum's deficit. The arrangement, however, raised questions about the long-term loan of crucial works from permanent museum collections as well as issues of safety and conservation. (SANDRA MILLIKIN)

* * *