The Deaccessioning of Art
Titian, 1559, wikimedia.org; Diana and Callisto, Titian, 1559, wikimedia.org /Artwork: designslinger]
The art world has been roiling with the news that Brandeis University is going to close the
Rose Art Museum and sell-off the collection. The action is a major no-no in art circles, and has been met with stinging condemnations from the Association of Art Museum Directors, but school's Board of Trustees is sticking by its decision - at least for now. The Trustees are confronting a $10 million deficit and a shrinking endowment due to the economy, so apparently they feel this is the kind of decision a fiscally responsible board has to make. The Rose opened in 1961, and with over 6,000 pieces, the museum contains a who's who of contemporary art: Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning, Jaspar Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Raushenberg, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol. The collection has been valued at $300 million, and at auction, say just a year ago, the school might have fetched much more, but given the recent sales at Sotheby's and Christies, it could be worth less than the estimated value.
While all of this has been going on, it was announced yesterday that the people of the UK
will hold on to a part of their national artistic patrimony. The Duke of Sutherland put the word out last August that he was going to sell two Titian paintings that have been in the family's possession for 220 years. The Duke's art collection has been on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland since the 1940s, and according to the word on the street, he had been advised to try and raise 100 million pounds from said collection, to help balance his cash flow. Which seems remarkable since he's supposed to be worth around 30 million pounds. He decided on the pair of Titian's, and although the paintings could have sold for upwards of 150 million pounds each on the open market, the Duke offered the pair to the British and Scottish governments for a mere 50 million each - if they could raise the money in a specified period of time. Well, the funds have been raised to purchase Titian's Diana and Actaeon, and now a campaign is underway to finish gathering up another 50 million for the other painting in the set, Diana and Callista.
Our government is certainly not going to pony-up any money to keep the Rose collection
together. And even though the Duke's paintings are hanging in a museum, he can sell whatever he wants because technically he owns the art, and his personal deaccessioning is his business. Maybe the Rose Museum will find a white knight (or a Duke) who will endow Brandeis with the cash they're looking for, and keep the collection intact. Hell, institutions sell naming rights for museums and their galleries all the time, so why not put the collection up for sale in return for your name being plastered across the entrance?
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