As Times Get Tough, Museums Debate Stance on Selling Artworks

January 06, 2009

As Times Get Tough, Museums Debate Stance on Selling Artworks

Tough economic times have forced museums to reconsider a long-held ethics policy on selling art from their collections, notes an article in The New York Times. But the issue is controversial.

Carmine Branagan, director of the National Academy Museum, in New York, faced more backlash than she had anticipated when the museum’s board decided to sell two Hudson River School paintings for about $15-million. The Association of Art Museum Directors responded to the sale with an e-mail message to its 190 members, denouncing the academy for “breaching one of the most basic and important of A.A.M.D.’s principles” and calling on members “to suspend any loans of works of art to and any collaborations on exhibitions with the National Academy.”

Ms. Branagan says the withdrawal of loans was a “death knell” for the museum.

Supporters of the ban on selling art to cover operating costs warn that institutions that do will suffer irreparable damage.

“Selling an object is a knee-jerk act, and it undermines core principles of a museum,” said Michael Conforti, president of the museum directors’ association and director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. “There are always other options.”

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Comments

I sympasize with the National Academy of Design, which is a gem of a dislay site, e.g.the magnficent recent exhibit of George Tooker.Too bad that ego-driven fat cats (e.gSchwarzstein)who give vast sums to icons like the NY Public Library, which then pander to him by pasting his name in several places in the library, can’t pay some attention to less glitzy institutions. It’s less his fault than the president of the library, Paul LeClerc, who invited him to slap his name on the building.This same LeClerc has disposed of some of the library’s own art holdings, while slashing staff benefits.

— Richard Magat Jan 10, 06:16 PM #

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