N.Y. Legislators Mull Bill Restricting Museum Art Sales

New York State museums would be barred from selling off artworks to cover regular operating expenses under a measure introduced yesterday in the state legislature, The New York Times reports.

The bill was prompted by the December sale of two Hudson River School paintings by New York’s National Academy Museum and the furor over Brandeis University’s proposal to sell some works from its Rose Art Museum to counter a steep drop in its endowment.

“The two notions of deaccessioning and debt have to be de-coupled,” said Anne W. Ackerson, director of the Museum Association of New York, which assisted Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky in drafting the bill.