A Philadelphia Deaccessioning

Fellow Appraiser Workshops Blog reader Paula Barlowe forwarded a very interesting article on the deaccessioning of items from the Philadelphia History Museum.  Although I have not posted a deaccessioning article on the blog in a while, there have been many including the Corcoran, the National Academy, Fisk University and Brandies to name a few.  The NY Times is reporting that the Philadelphia History Museum has sold nearly 2,000 items over the past several years in order to raise funds for renovations to its building.  

The Philadelphia History Museum is considered a "history" museum, and therefore is subject to less binding deaccessioning guidelines.  They therefore claim they can deaccession items for renovations.
 
Deaccessioning by museums remains a very controversial topic, as most museum association guidelines prohibit the sale of items except to purchase/finance new acquisitions.  The debate continues and given the difficult economic times, many museums are looking for new ways to raise funds, including deaccessioning.

The NY Times reports

In doing so the museum stepped into the quicksand of murky rules, guidelines and ethical strictures meant to discourage museums everywhere from selling collections to pay bills. It is one of the hottest issues in the museum world today. With budgets shrinking in a bad economy, the pressure to generate revenue is growing along with fears that museums are squandering public trusts meant to preserve the artifacts of the past for future generations.

The National Academy Museum in New York, Fisk University and Brandeis have all recently drawn fire — and even sanctions — for selling or planning to sell artworks, and none of them sold as many works as the museum here.

In general art and objects are supposed to be sold only to finance acquisitions, though different museums are governed by different standards. Art museums, regulated by a formal code of the Association of Art Museum Directors, may not sell work for any other reason.

To read the full NY Times article, click HERE.