Seeing a Cash Cow in Museums’ Precious Art

[Puglover]

I found this article absolutely chilling. I really can see a future where the Jamie Dimon's of the world have art that was enjoyed by all of us in their private collections. People had better wake up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/arts/design/seeing-a-cash-cow-in-museums-precious-art.html?_r=0

MÜNSTER, Germany — The director of the art museum here dreads the idea of losing some of his town’s biggest cultural attractions. He worries about a Henry Moore sculpture that has been on exhibition for almost 40 years, knowing it could vanish along with Renaissance panels and Eduardo Chillida benches in a sale to settle government debts.

“There’s an expression in German: ‘Don’t sell your family silver,’ ” said the director, Hermann Arnhold of the Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History. “Would you sell the story of your family? If you sell important artworks, that means selling a part of your history.”

[liberal N proud]

1. Break the government then you can pilfer the assets

That is the true conservative agenda when they talk smaller government.

[Puglover]

2. Same thing for the USPO.

Break by enacting impossible payments for future retirees and then when it's broken go after that money. It's classic.

[SomethingFishy]

3. My son and I spend a lot of time at the Denver Art Museum...

and when I walk through there we sometimes talk about all the private collections, and all the incredible works of beauty that will never be seen because they are gathering dust in some rich assholes living room.

You want to collect art? Collect it and give it to a museum to display. Great works of art are not just for the rich.

[Puglover]

4. The article mentions 1000's of pieces

that never see the light of day in museums due to space limitations. I thought "So rotate the goddamned things"

[pinboy3niner]

6. Most museums normally DO try to rotate eshibits

I remember visiting the Smithsonian decades ago on a special tour to their "attic" where I saw the original "Teddy bear," JFK's rocking chair, and Lincoln's desk. They were only off display at the time because of exhibit rotation.

[SomethingFishy]

9. Yup or send them out as a collection on tour..

Our museum has a bunch of permanent stuff and then traveling exhibits.. We go whenever they bring in a new exhibit.

[frazzled]

5. This, fortunately, can not currently happen in the US

Or at least not happen easily. The code of ethics of the Association of American Museum Directors (AAMD) specifies that works of art may not be sold “for purposes other than acquisitions of works of art for the collection.” In other words, a museum can't sell works to cover operating expenses or deficits; only to buy other (perhaps more relevant or desirable) works. Those who attempt to do so (recently, e.g., the National Academy Museum in New York, or Brandeis University's Rose Art Museum) have been met with swift reprisals—sanctions so severe and backlash so rampant that the Rose, for example, had to rescind its plan to deaccession any works.

Of course, that body could some day change its ethics code, which specifies that works are "“held in trust for the public” and which keeps museums in good public standing. But for now, this ain't gonna happen in the US on any scale.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. Wasn't that exactly what was being contemplated in Detroit, I think it was?

Where the 'Emergency Manager' appointed by the Republican governor was considering looting the museum to try and pay off bills?

[frazzled]

10. Yes, but it didn't happen

And the Detroit museum is a bit unusual: the museum, and the works in it, are owned by the city. Still, there was too big an outcry, and money was raised elsewhere.

It would have been so short-sighted had they actually gone through with selling the art.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. Rent it out?

Instead of selling it outright, what about renting it out for say, 3 months out of the year, with insanely high contracts such that if someone you rent it to lets it get damaged or stolen, they owe you ten times the appraised value?