{"id":197,"date":"2021-02-10T01:14:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T17:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?p=197"},"modified":"2021-02-10T01:16:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T17:16:05","slug":"as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/","title":{"rendered":"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMuseum<\/b>\u00a0directors, as a convention,<\/strong>\u00a0learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the\u00a0Baltimore Museum of Art<\/a>, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a whirlwind moment for Bedford. In a few days, two works from the museum\u2019s collection were set to hit the block at Sotheby\u2019s in New York\u2014its only Clyfford Still and Brice Marden paintings\u2014and the auction house was offering Andy Warhol\u2019s\u00a0Last Supper<\/i>\u00a0(1986) privately. The sales were estimated to net $65 million. His plan was to plow about $55 million into an endowment that would generate $2.5 million a year to cover collection care. That would allow him to put the same amount toward salary increases ($13.50 per hour to $20 for guards, for one), extended hours, and other initiatives. The remaining $10 million would go toward a more diverse collection.<\/p>\n

Even for a museum with a robust endowment of around $140 million, it would be a huge injection of capital. During the coronavirus lockdown, Bedford had been mulling how to make \u201cequity, diversity and inclusion, and justice lived experiences within the museum,\u201d he said. In the pandemic\u2019s early days, as the economy tanked and museum leaders braced for budget shortfalls, the\u00a0Association of Art Museum Directors<\/a>\u00a0(AAMD) had loosened its restrictions on selling art. Bedford believed that the museum could make huge strides selling just those three works.<\/span><\/p>\n

But very quickly, opponents of the sale\u2014including former BMA board members and staffers\u2014were gaining traction. Bedford\u2019s goals were admirable, they said, but he was betraying the museum field. It is the job of museums to protect art. Patrons and artists would think twice about donating art, or money, if they believed that works in the collection could become a funding stream at a director\u2019s whim. Accusations of impropriety were made, with some asking the Maryland attorney general to investigate. The BMA was now \u201cthe leading poster child for art collection carelessness,\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Christopher Knight, the Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning art critic, who has long condemned major museum sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Brice<\/div>\n<\/div>
Brice Marden\u2019s\u00a03<\/em>\u00a0(1987\u201388) was also part of the Baltimore Museum of Art\u2019s intended to sell before hitting \u201cpause\u201d on its plans.<\/span>COURTESY CHRISTIE\u2019S IMAGES LTD. 2020.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhat we are doing is not for everyone, including the Christopher Knights of the world,\u201d Bedford said. \u201cThere is a pressing, pressing, pressing need for change within institutions in this country, because we have been failing in our mission of providing the right kind of service.\u201d He was blunt: \u201cWe\u2019ve kept our walls so high and so elite, that we\u2019ve failed democratically.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bedford\u2019s plan was aggressive, but it was not necessarily apostasy. In 2018 he had sold seven paintings by white men already well represented in the BMA collection\u2014Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Noland, and Warhol, among them\u2014raising $16.2 million to diversify its holdings. Major pieces by Jack Whitten, Wangechi Mutu, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and others took their place. The AAMD had paved the way for his latest move by suspending its sanctions against museums that sell art for purposes other than acquisitions. The suspension meant that museums could use income from funds established by selling art for \u201cdirect care\u201d of their collections, as each defined that phrase.<\/span><\/p>\n

The AAMD framed its actions as recognition that the financial disruption caused by the pandemic could be so severe that museums might need to take extraordinary measures. Baltimore was not financially strained, but speaking with the\u00a0New York Times<\/i>, AAMD executive director Christine Anagnos\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the move was allowed. \u201cThey are using the money that was once used for direct collection care to invest in a range of equity initiatives essential to [the museum\u2019s] mission,\u201d she said. And as Bedford was defending his sale against mounting opposition, the\u00a0Brooklyn Museum<\/a>\u00a0was pursuing its own major campaign of sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Exterior<\/div>\n<\/div>
The Baltimore Museum of Art\u2019s plan to raise $65 million for inclusion initiatives put it museum at the center of a vigorous industry-wide debate about deaccessioning.<\/span>MITRO HOOD.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

While they tend not to\u00a0<\/b>advertise<\/strong>\u00a0it widely, museums regularly part with work for all sorts of reasons, and use any proceeds to buy art that they want. There may be a redundancy\u2014if curators acquire a finer print of the same photograph, the lesser one goes. (This is generally uncontroversial.) Material once accepted as a gift may not relate to its actual mission, like a shrunken monkey head that found its way into one museum of American art. (Ditto.) Or curators may decide an artist is over-represented, or unimportant, and do some pruning. (More controversial, potentially.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Deaccessioning has also been used to reorient museums entirely, which is when the controversy level can shoot up. In the 1960s, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis began selling 19th-century art amassed by its founder, Thomas Barlow Walker, so that it could focus on buying contemporary art. There were complaints, but it is now recognized as a leader in that field.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Cover<\/div>\n<\/div>
Martin Gammon\u2019s book, published in 2018 by the MIT Press, charts a 400-year history of museums selling their holdings.<\/span>COURTESY MIT PRESS.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

There are also less heartening tales. In the United States, after the Second World War, some university institutions \u201csold off masterpieces left and right\u201d while reconceiving their collections \u201cand it wasn\u2019t a very good plan,\u201d said Martin Gammon, an art adviser and former director at Bonhams auction house. His 2018 book\u00a0Deaccessioning and Its Discontents<\/i>\u00a0(MIT) charts a history of the practice in England from the 1600s forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rules of the AAMD stipulate that funds from a museum\u2019s art sales can go only toward the acquisition of more art: their so-called permanent collections must not be monetized to cover other expenses. \u201cWe hold these collections in trust for the public,\u201d said Brent R. Benjamin, who has served as AAMD president since 2019, and who is director of the St. Louis Art Museum in Missouri.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bureaucratic rules that undergird this state of affairs are wonky, but their effects are profound. The Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting rules for organizations public, private, and nonprofit, says that museums do not need to list the value of their artworks in their financial documents. It issued that decision in the early 1990s, after museum leaders argued that appraisals were pointless since they preserve art, they don\u2019t sell it to operate. That arrangement rankles some outside the museum world. \u201cYou can\u2019t just pretend you don\u2019t have assets entrusted with you,\u201d said Michael O\u2019Hare, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He\u2019s called for museums to be required to value their art, \u201cso then we can ask, Are you doing a good job with this stuff we gave you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last April, Benjamin announced the AAMD\u2019s dramatic shift: for two years, it would suspend sanctions for some rule-breaking. Because museums were facing revenue drops\u2014they were unable to sell tickets, and the stock-market drop could hamper donors\u2014they could use income from deaccessioning funds for collection care.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Exterior<\/div>\n<\/div>
The Brooklyn Museum sold more than 20 works during the fall 2020 auctions, with more sales planned for the future.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Anne Pasternak, director of the Brooklyn Museum, had been hoping for that signal. A year earlier, FASB ruled that deaccessioning proceeds could fund \u201cdirect care,\u201d aligning with the policy of the American Alliance of Museums, which accredits U.S. museums of all kinds. (Meaning: a dinosaur museum can sell a T-rex skeleton to help conserve a brontosaurus.) Pasternak said that around that time, \u201cI started to have a conversation with my board, and my curators, and leadership team, about how great it would be if we could create a fund to, in perpetuity, take care of the collections.\u201d Thanks to Covid, she could act without fearing AAMD sanctions, which forbid peers from loaning works to penalized museums, rendering them pariahs.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Christie\u2019s fall auctions and through one private transaction, Brooklyn sold off more than 20 works, by Lucas Cranach the Elder (for $5.1 million), Claude Monet, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, raising more than half of its goal of $40 million; additional sales are planned. After being invested, according to the museum\u2019s calculations, that final figure would provide the roughly $2 million it needs annually for collection care.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome institutions don\u2019t have budget problems,\u201d Pasternak said. \u201cThey have giant endowments. That\u2019s not the case for the Brooklyn Museum. It\u2019s never been the case for the Brooklyn Museum.\u201d U.S. museums received about 22 percent of their revenue from endowments in 2017, on average, according to the AAMD; during the 2017\u201318 fiscal year, the Brooklyn Museum took in only about 11.5 percent from that source. Historically in New York, people have not been as philanthropic toward non-Manhattan institutions, Pasternak said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Lucas<\/div>\n<\/div>
Lucas Cranach the Elder\u2019s\u00a0Lucretia<\/em>\u00a0(ca. 16th century), was sold at Christie\u2019s for $5.1 million by the Brooklyn Museum.<\/span>COURTESY CHRISTIE\u2019S IMAGES LTD.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Stocks recovered soon after the AAMD\u2019s decision, though, and the wealthy seemed to be thriving. Critics like Knight and Tyler Green were asking, Why can\u2019t the trustees step up now? Her board has been generous, Pasternak said. \u201cWe\u2019re public institutions. Why is it that a handful of people are expected to carry the burden of a public institution that they didn\u2019t create?\u201d She did not mince words about another challenge: \u201cWe don\u2019t have donors who want to endow conservation positions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

About four hours Upstate, in Syracuse, New York, the Everson Museum\u2019s chair, an art adviser named Jessica Arb Danial, echoed that sentiment. \u201cI just don\u2019t know that many rich people that want to support the arts right now,\u201d she said, when pressed about the responsibilities of trustees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a huge collecting base here, nor do we have billionaire trustees on our board,\u201d Everson director Elizabeth Dunbar said. When Dunbar joined the museum in 2014, she began deaccessioning work deemed superfluous, like that monkey head, to add art by women and artists of color. But her resources were limited\u2014the Everson\u2019s acquisitions endowment provided only about $30,000 annually\u2014and she wanted to do more while guaranteeing conservation work.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the AAMD put a moratorium on its sanctions in April, Danial said, \u201cWe thought, well, wow, this is actually something we never thought would happen. Maybe we can look into this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Their focus turned to Jackson Pollock\u2019s\u00a0Red Composition\u00a0<\/i>(1946), the second drip painting he ever made. Danial had heard that, during a period of financial turmoil, a trustee had once \u201ckind of flippantly said, \u2018You know, you should sell that Jackson Pollock.\u2019 \u201d A recent capital campaign had lined up $17 million, but much of it would not reach the museum until patrons died. Here was a work that could make a comparable difference. The board voted to sell. In September, the Everson sent the small Pollock to Christie\u2019s. It was a tough decision, Danial said, but she saw it as \u201ca pawn in a game of moving our business forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The backlash was swift. In his\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/i>\u00a0column, Terry Teachout\u00a0lamented<\/a>\u00a0that the painting\u2014\u201cthe most important in the Everson\u201d and the Everson\u2019s \u201csole destination piece\u201d\u2014might \u201cnever again be seen by the public.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople make pilgrimages from around the world to see two things at the Everson,\u201d Dunbar said, \u201cAdelaide Robineau\u2019s\u00a0Scarab Vase<\/i>\u00a0and our building\u201d\u2014I. M. Pei\u2019s first art museum. \u201cNo one comes to see the Pollock.\u201d If it was so important, she asked, why had it never been requested for a major Pollock retrospective?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Jackson<\/div>\n<\/div>
Jackson Pollock\u2019s\u00a0Red Composition<\/em>\u00a0(1946), which the Everson Museum sold for a hammer price of $12 million in October.<\/span>COURTESY CHRISTIE\u2019S IMAGES LTD.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The work hammered for its low estimate, $12 million. \u201cI\u2019m certainly getting lots of emails from galleries and artists who think I have $12 million to deal out right now to buy anything and everything,\u201d Dunbar said. \u201cBut you know, it\u2019s going into an endowment.\u201d It will provide about $500,000 a year, to be divided as museum leadership sees fit between acquisitions and direct care\u2014a potentially solid sum for art-buying, but not a jaw-dropping one, given the cost of some emerging art.<\/span><\/p>\n

Time-tested blue-chip art has shot up in price too, which is making these decisions appealing, however fractious. When the Pollock was donated to the Everson in 1991, it was appraised at just $800,000\u2014about $1.53 million in today\u2019s dollars. \u201cIt does happen to be the most valuable piece in the collection,\u201d Dunbar said, \u201cso in one fell swoop, we can make sweeping change.\u201d Given Pollock\u2019s mythical status, it \u201csignifies to communities of color and to women artists that the myth of the white male genius is under scrutiny.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Amid the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests, there\u2019s \u201ca perfect storm of self-analysis, self-examination at museums, and all of a sudden, you wonder, How does this painting fit into all that?\u201d said the lawyer Mark S. Gold, who advised the Everson on its deaccessioning. (He emphasized he was describing the general atmosphere, rather than specific cases he has worked on.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Gold is a divisive figure in the field, having helped steer one of the\u00a0most controversial sell-offs<\/a>\u00a0of late, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 2018, after court fights, the Berkshire Museum there sold 22 of its most valuable artworks, including a Norman Rockwell donated by the artist, for more than $50 million, to fund renovations and build an endowment. Critics charged trustees with gross mismanagement, and the AAMD imposed sanctions\u2014to no avail.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Berkshire board argued that it faced a daunting balance sheet. Given current economic turmoil, others may reach a similar conclusion. \u201cI definitely think there\u2019s going to be an uptick on the need to sell, unfortunately,\u201d said Allison Whiting, Christie\u2019s director of museum services. She added, \u201cIt is not the kind of selling that we like to see museums do. It\u2019s sad and it\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And relying on the market can be risky. When the Delaware Art Museum (DAM) sold art in 2014 to retire debt from a 2005 expansion project, a William Holman Hunt with a low estimate of $8.4 million hammered at Christie\u2019s for a paltry $4.25 million. The museum was able to pay its creditors by selling an Andrew Wyeth, an Alexander Calder, and a Winslow Homer. It avoided depleting its endowment, but it was a disappointment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The AAMD imposed sanctions on the DAM, and the American Alliance of Museums withdrew its accreditation. \u201cIt was a dark, painful time,\u201d said Molly Giordano, DAM interim executive director. \u201cBut it kept us alive, it kept us functioning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Giordano argued that the museum became more focused on serving its local community during the national uproar, and that the larger museum world needs to grapple with the strain some small museums are under. \u201cI\u2019m not advocating for deaccessioning for funding general operating,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there\u2019s an openness and dialogue we need to all have about business models that work.\u201d When selling a few artworks might prevent job cuts, or ensure a museum\u2019s existence, it can be tempting to flout the rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Gold put it, referring to the AAMD\u2019s code of ethics, \u201cWhat\u2019s unethical about using the proceeds from one painting to pay people fairly, or to address social injustice?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Protesters<\/div>\n<\/div>
Protesters take issue with the Berkshire Museum\u2019s plan to sell 21 of its most valuable artworks, including a Norman Rockwell donated by the artist himself.<\/span>PHOTO: GILLIAN JONES\/THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In a museum industry where\u00a0<\/b>conformity usually reigns, competing ideas about collection management are suddenly playing out in public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even as Pasternak saw through her own vigorous deaccessioning plan to support collection care, she emphasized her red lines. She would not sell work by living artists, and she said, \u201cthe big issue is that you just don\u2019t sell the crown jewels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Some have accused Bedford of doing just that by trying to part with the Clyfford Still, which was donated by the artist, a local who was notoriously tight-fisted with his work; the Marden, by an artist who remains active and revered at age 82; and a Warhol that is important to his late work. (Intriguingly, funds from a Mark Rothko painting deaccessioned in the 1980s had gone toward the Warhol.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Bedford\u2019s plan has pushed the envelope. While the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art sold a Rothko for $50.1 million to diversify its collection in 2019 (squarely within AAMD rules), most of Baltimore\u2019s proceeds would go toward direct care, freeing up money for those salary increases and inclusion efforts. Its success or failure will likely have a seismic effect on the field. Laurence Eisenstein, a former BMA trustee leading opposition to the sales, said, if they go through, \u201cI think there is some risk that these kinds of deaccessions will start running rampant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Eisenstein, a lawyer, supported Bedford in his earlier round of sales in pursuit of collection diversity. \u201cThat seemed like a rational way to accomplish that goal,\u201d he said. But the museum has been well funded, he argued, its budgets have been increasing, and these new disposals cut too deeply. He believes collectors will ask, \u201cShould I donate work to the museum, given what seems to be a somewhat cavalier attitude toward deaccessioning?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The ensuing uproar has been rancorous\u2014and bizarre. After two former BMA chairs, Charles Newhall III and Stiles Colwill, said they had canceled a total of $50 million in pledges to protest Bedford\u2019s leadership (the latter, apparently a full year ago), the BMA\u2019s current board chair, Clair Zamoiski Segal, told the\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0<\/i>that there was actually no record of their promises. Newhall shot back that the bequests had been noted in board minutes, telling the paper, \u201cThat\u2019s what they are doing about everything. They are denying everything. They lie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This much, at least, is clear: huge amounts of money, and core principles, are at stake in many of these battles. \u201cAlthough the de-accessioning \u2018virus\u2019 is deeply depressing, it doesn\u2019t altogether surprise me,\u201d art scholar David Anfam said in an email. Anfam, who opposes the Baltimore sales, believes that museums are in a state of crisis about their roles. \u201cTo put it crudely,\u201d he said, \u201care they treasure houses for the elite or community centers? Doubtless, the answer lies between the two extremes. The dilemma is, where?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The meanings of words like trust, democracy, and access are being contested. Teachout slammed the Everson sale on the grounds that an art museum is \u201ca public trust. In return for its special tax status and similar privileges, it is expected to treat its holdings with that fact firmly in mind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Exterior<\/div>\n<\/div>
The New Orleans Museum of Art has been the subject of a campaign by Dismantle NOMA to address its systemic racism.<\/span>\u00a9RMBARRICARTE – STOCK.ADOBE.COM<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But who is included in that trust when museum audiences, executives, and boards are disproportionately white and upper class? In an interview, fari nzinga, an art historian who has conducted research on the AAMD\u2019s conception of the mission of museums (she spells her name in lowercase), proposed \u201cbroadening the definition of public trust beyond simply object stewardship. By clinging to this narrow definition of the purpose of the museum, what it\u2019s supposed to be, and who it\u2019s supposed to be for, it\u2019s damaging to the museum sector, and they\u2019re hemorrhaging talent.\u201d A former New Orleans Museum of Art staffer, she is a member of Dismantle NOMA, which has called on the museum to address systemic racism, and a visiting professor at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While supporting sales aimed at improving collection diversity, nzinga said, \u201cI would even have skepticism about whose art is going to replace the deaccessioned works. If it is going to be the same high-profile handful of black and people-of-color artists that get all the museum shows, are they even really helping anybody out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For years, Michael O\u2019Hare, the Berkeley professor, has also called for museums to alter their approach. \u201cMuseums are a public good,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cWe give them special financial privileges and tax-free buildings and whatnot. And their job is to maximize engagement with art and optimize engagement with art.\u201d His prescription: reverse FASB\u2019s position and make the AAMD\u2019s changes permanent. Force museums to value their art on their balance sheets, then ask them tough questions about what they show, what sits in storage, and what they could sell\u2014perhaps with a preference for other museums\u2014to hire more employees, pay them better, and promote better engagement with art.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a position is anathema to those in the museum field, not least because they see their role as more than just facilitating art appreciation. They study and ferry it through time as tastes and values change. \u201cOne generation\u2019s idea of a \u2018masterpiece\u2019 may become another\u2019s redundant object, and vice-versa,\u201d said Anfam, who is senior consulting director at Denver\u2019s Clyfford Still Museum. The AAMD\u2019s Benjamin said museums represent \u201can incredibly democratic opportunity for all of us\u2014for free, or for a relatively nominal fee\u2014to experience works of art that, in a different time, or a different place, we might never have been able to see.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Italienne<\/div>\n<\/div>
Italienne debout tenant une cruche<\/em>\u00a0by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796\u20131875) was one of 20 pieces that the Brooklyn Museum sold through Christie\u2019s.<\/span>COURTESY CHRISTIE\u2019S IMAGES LTD. 2020.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

O\u2019Hare is not some wild-eyed libertarian. He\u2019s spent his career addressing topics like biofuels, NIMBYism, and facility siting, and he published his extreme museum-management ideas in the progressive journal\u00a0Democracy<\/i>. The artist Hans Hofmann, he pointed out, donated dozens of his paintings to the Berkeley Art Museum, and they rarely see the light of day. \u201cThis is really about opportunity cost,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat value are we losing by denying all of the minor museums around the country a Hofmann? And the answer, I think, if we were really serious about it, is: kind of a lot.\u201d Most museums are not, of course, sitting on a trove of Hofmanns. But he reasons they may have other underutilized, financially valuable art that could support worthy goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t his course of action push donors and government funding away from supporting museums? \u201cIf the only way by which you can make a claim on people\u2019s wealth and the taxpayer is by lying, then sure,\u201d O\u2019Hare said. \u201cIf a rich person asked me about art philanthropy, I would say, Go down the street, walk past the museum to the symphony or chamber-music-presenting organization and give them money\u2014until things change.\u201d Knight called O\u2019Hare\u2019s ideas \u201cridiculous\u201d in an interview, and suggested that those pushing deaccessioning \u201cstop thinking like Ronald Reagan. Stop thinking that trickle-down works. It\u2019s a mindset that says the market is the answer to all our problems. And it is not. Resisting that is itself a morale-builder, a culture-builder, and a community-builder.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Baltimore\u2019s plan edges toward O\u2019Hare\u2019s proposal by making a trade between its art and its other goals. (Although O\u2019Hare has said he wouldn\u2019t advocate selling masterpieces.) One rallying cry against such sales is the specter of works once enjoyed by the public disappearing into the vaults of oligarchs. The reality is more complicated. There are no exact statistics on the fate of art sold by museums, but some of it does reappear. Gammon points to a sale of 32 Old Master works from the beleaguered New-York Historical Society\u2019s Bryan Collection in 1995: Other museums have since acquired six of them, and 19 have either appeared at museums or been offered again on the market. The impulse of the rich to glorify themselves transcends time and deaccessioning. (The whereabouts of Delaware\u2019s Homer is unknown, but the Berkshires\u2019 best Rockwell was acquired by George Lucas\u2019s\u00a0forthcoming Los Angeles museum<\/a>. The public will see it, but in a city with 100 times more people.)<\/span><\/p>\n

However daring their plans, though, Bedford, BMA chief curator Asma Naeem, and BMA senior curator Katy Siegel have made their case in curatorial terms: the BMA has plenty of late Warhols, their Marden prints better represent him, and narratives of gestural abstraction need not require a Still. \u201cThese arguments are completely disingenuous upon closer examination,\u201d said Gammon, the scholar\u2013art adviser. \u201cI think they should just be straightforward and say, \u2018We wanted to raise a huge amount of money, and we picked out several pieces that were highlighted to us as valuable.\u2019 \u201d (Of course, this is a former auctioneer speaking.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The money for more financially stable, more interesting museums needs to come from somewhere, but the more one considers the possibilities, the less any single answer looks ideal. Those who oppose any major deaccessioning have the benefit of clarity: Keep art in its place. A commitment to history and preservation is admirable. The psychic benefits of cultural pride and patrimony are real, even if they cannot be itemized on financial documents. But so, too, are the opportunity costs of refusing a path of \u201cprogressive deaccessioning,\u201d a phrase coined by curator Glenn Adamson to describe sales that chip away at the white supremacy in collections. And merely demanding the rich give more does not feel like a wholly satisfying response to calls for reimagining museums around social and economic justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Jack<\/div>\n<\/div>
Jack Whitten\u2019s\u00a09.11.01<\/em>\u00a0(2006) was acquired by the BMA using funds raised by selling work in 2018 by Franz Kline, Robert Rauschenberg, and others.<\/span>PHOTO: JOHN BERENS\/\u00a9JACK WHITTEN ESTATE\/COURTESY THE JACK WHITTEN ESTATE AND HAUSER & WIRTH.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In any case, Baltimore\u00a0brought its plan to a halt<\/a>\u00a0after an institutional show of force. On the eve of the auction in late October, the AAMD released a statement abruptly pulling back its support, though without explicitly mentioning Baltimore. While he recognized museums had big plans, Benjamin wrote in the statement, \u201chowever serious those long-term needs or meritorious those goals, the current position of AAMD is that the funds for those must not come from the sale of deaccessioned art.\u201d The suspension of the penalties, Benjamin continued, was not meant as a green light to begin selling. Asked about the apparent shift, he pointed me to his letter. \u201cWe\u2019re not really wanting to single out any particular circumstance,\u201d he said. (The AAMD maintains that the suspension will conclude in April of 2022.)<\/span><\/p>\n

In an unprecedented condemnation, 15 former AAMD presidents signed a letter the next day that backed the AAMD\u2019s position, urging the BMA \u201cto reconsider.\u201d (Among the signees was Arnold Lehman, who had led both the Brooklyn and Baltimore museums.) Baltimore withdrew the lots from the sale\u2014the public became aware just hours before the Still and the Warhol were to be auctioned\u2014but it remained undaunted. \u201cOur vision and our goals have not changed,\u201d it said in a statement. \u201cIt will take us longer to achieve them, but we will do so through all the means at our disposal.\u201d (Bedford and Segal, the board chair, declined to be interviewed after their retreat.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking before the cancellation, Bedford was adamant about acting quickly. Fundraising campaigns can take years to raise serious money. He wasn\u2019t willing to wait that long to improve equity, and his board had been supportive in its funding already. \u201cIn order to achieve the kind of transformation that I think we as a museum have promised the city of Baltimore in the period of time that we have allocated for that transformation, it would have been impossible without an exceptional event,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

He still has strong supporters. The Reverend Kobi Little, who leads the Baltimore NAACP,\u00a0decried<\/a>\u00a0the efforts of \u201cdisgruntled board members to hinder the BMA\u2019s evolution\u201d in a letter to the\u00a0Baltimore Sun<\/i>\u00a0that invoked the late Congressman John Lewis\u2019s notion of \u201cgood trouble.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However the Baltimore case settles, it has already lent new candor to discussions about deaccessioning\u2014and about how museums prioritize their interests. Noting that guards at the BMA could qualify for housing vouchers, columnist Carolina A. Miranda\u00a0wrote\u00a0in an\u00a0L.A. Times<\/i>\u00a0column opposing the sales that \u201cmuseums officers and trustees should be embarrassed.\u201d Museum collections have long skewed white and male, and wages have long been low. Is selling art the best course for correcting that?<\/span><\/p>\n

The potential benefits and losses are tremendous. Curlee Raven Holton, an artist who directs the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, said that he supports Baltimore\u2019s sales \u201cwith recognition of the limits in alternative fundraising opportunities, a need to confront an embarrassing past, the repositioning of the institution to reflect a more accurate picture of the American artistic canon. There are no costless decisions. The neglect of artists of color has been a painful reality, the correction of this wound will as well be matched with a new pain, one of change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source\uff1ahttps:\/\/www.artnews.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMuseum\u00a0directors, as a convention,\u00a0learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the\u00a0Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[60],"class_list":{"0":"post-197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"tag-baltimore-museum-of-art"},"yoast_head":"\nAs Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public - Investable Art Auctioneer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cMuseum directors, as a convention, learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public - Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cMuseum directors, as a convention, learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Investable Art Auctioneer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-09T17:14:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-09T17:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/andy-w.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1157\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chloe Nicholls\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"23 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/\",\"name\":\"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public - Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-09T17:14:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-09T17:16:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\"},\"description\":\"\u201cMuseum directors, as a convention, learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/\",\"name\":\"Investable Art Auctioneer\",\"description\":\"Atelier Auction\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744\",\"name\":\"Chloe Nicholls\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chloe Nicholls\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public - Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"\u201cMuseum directors, as a convention, learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public - Investable Art Auctioneer","og_description":"\u201cMuseum directors, as a convention, learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/","og_site_name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","article_published_time":"2021-02-09T17:14:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-09T17:16:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1157,"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/andy-w.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chloe Nicholls","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chloe Nicholls","Est. reading time":"23 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/","name":"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public - Investable Art Auctioneer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-02-09T17:14:31+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-09T17:16:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744"},"description":"\u201cMuseum directors, as a convention, learn art history in the classroom, and they learn economic management in practice,\u201d Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, said by phone in mid-October. \u201cThe big revelation, for me, is that my greatest act of creativity is now an economic one, as opposed to a conventionally defined creative one.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/as-museums-push-to-sell-art-competing-ideas-about-deaccessioning-are-playing-out-in-public\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"As Museums Push to Sell Art, Competing Ideas About Deaccessioning Are Playing Out in Public"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/","name":"Investable Art Auctioneer","description":"Atelier Auction","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/8970f67f73afbf7d021dbf09ccb32744","name":"Chloe Nicholls","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/17de1bd86f8b21c51e6105f410fd264e72dda3abc6429dc91326e1a0ab2c365c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chloe Nicholls"},"url":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/author\/chloe-nicholls\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atelierauction.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}