James Panero of the Wall Street Journal is reporting on another museum looking to deaccesssion a portion of its collection. The Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, N.J. will be selling about 50 items from its collection including a Jackson Pollock drawing and several Hudson River scenes through Christies. The sale is expected to generate $3-$4 million for the museum which is refining its mission and plans on using the funds for future acquisitions. Panero seems to question if that is truly the case, and if it is not more an act of desperation and a need to raise operating funds. Certainly an interesting article.
Panero states Presented as curatorial housekeeping, but in fact motivated by financial exigencies, the Montclair sales -- if allowed to proceed -- will set another sorry example of an institution cashing out on art in the public trust.
Panero continues Yet while museums are forbidden from "capitalizing" their collections, or using the value of their art as collateral for a loan, nothing in the AAM or AAMD rules explicitly prevents museums from selling their art along certain subjective guidelines, earmarking that revenue for future acquisitions, and then using the endowment money raised from the sales to back their loans. In both cases, art in the permanent collection has been capitalized. By taking the extra step of selling the art first, however, museums avoid the censure of AAMD while still underwriting loans that may go to general operating expenses or the next vanity expansion project.
This dangerous gap in the guidelines -- one that puts our nation's permanent collections at risk -- the Montclair Art Museum now plans to exploit.
To read the full WSJ artilce, click HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment