The
Ethics of Deaccessioning Art from Museums
Abstract:
(full version coming soon)
Asterie Baker Provenzo and Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr.
University of Miami, School of Education
provenzo@miami.edu
Whether
or not museums have the right to sell artwork from their collections
to support their programs or to purchase other artworks has become
an increasingly controversial issue in recent years. Several important
examples involving this issue have come up in the last year: Fisk
University, the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Jefferson Medical School
in Philadelphia and Randolph Macon College. In the case of Fisk
University, for example, the university wanted to sell a painting,
worth a minimum of $10 million, by the American artist Georgia
O’Keeffe (1887-1986) titled “Radiator Building-Night,
New York, 1927. The painting had been left to the school by O’Keefe’s
husband the photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946).
Important ethical issues arise concerning the sale of a work like
O’Keefe’s to new owners. Does its sale represent a
breach of trust with the original donor? Should the sale of the
work be used to support the development of other collections in
the museum. In the case of the Albright-Knox Gallery, controversy
arose over a Chinese bronze being sold that had been given by
a donor a century ago for the general collection. This was long
before the modern collection (the museum’s hallmark collection)
was established. The profit from the sale of the Chinese piece
would be used to support the modern collection.
We propose to develop a unit that will explore the ethical issues
of art museums deaccessioning works from their collection for
the purposes of supporting programs or collections other than
those originally intended by the donors who contributed the work.
In addition, we will explore ethical issues involving the public
trust obligations held by museum directors, boards and curators.
Educational
Objectives
Through this unit students will understand more clearly the ethical
issues underlying the obligations that institutions have to maintaining
the wishes of donors concerning their bequests.
Core
Values
This module will explore the core values of Honesty, Integrity,
Respect, Responsibility and Fairness that museums have as part
of their ethical stewardship of public legacies and their duty
to honor the wishes of donors.
Description
of Activities
Some of the activities we will have students engage in as part
of this module will include: 1. role playing as donors and curators;
2. developing a policy guideline for the acceptance of gifts or
bequests; 3. Analysis and discussion of recent cases studies involving
the deaccessioning of artworks from museum collections.
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