In the Arts: Museums Wrestle With Brighter Spotlight on Art Sales

Recent controversies over museums’ sale of pieces from their collections, have put institutions on the defensive over transactions that a few years ago would have been routine, says The New York Times.

Several institutions, notably New York’s National Academy Museum and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, have attracted attention for selling or mulling the sale of works to raise money for operating costs. Sales from their collections, known as deaccessioning, is frowned upon by museum associations, which sanction such sales to finance future acquisitions, but amid the controversies all sales are drawing greater scrutiny.

“Part of the normal biological clock of museums is to examine their collections,” said David Franklin, director of the Cleveland Museum, which hopes to reap $1-million from auctioning off 32 old-master paintings Thursday. “I’ve given the message to all the curators that I regard deaccessioning as a normal act, and I encourage them to reassess the collections constantly.”

In other arts news, British companies cut cultural giving by 11 percent in the last fiscal year, the third straight annual decline, Bloomberg writes, citing a yearly survey on arts philanthropy.

Arts & Business, a charity that connects donors with cultural causes, said businesses gave $229-million to the arts in the 12 months ending March 31. Donations by individuals dropped by 4 percent to about $569-million.

“We’re looking at a very dangerous time for the arts” in Britain, said Colin Tweedy, chief executive of Arts & Business, predicting that as companies recover from the recession they will face “a whirlwind of requests” from universities and arts institutions facing cuts in government funds.