Local Spin On Deaccessioning Debate

In a recent blog post I discussed the debate over whether museums and public galleries should be able to liqidate a portion of their holdings to help pay the bills in troubled times like these. This controversial practice, known as deaccessioning, allows museums to keep the bulk of their work together and exercise their own judgement. Critics claim that this is a violation of a public trust, and that it often directly conflicts with the wishes of the entity that donated the works in the first place (which is true). A local Nashville case illustrates the conflict.

Fisk University Battles O'Keefe Museum: This Nashville Tennesseean article describes a recent Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling which will, if it stands, allow Fisk University to sell a 50% share of its Alfred Steiglitz collection. Steiglitz was the husband of Georgia O'Keefe, and the collection includes primarily O'Keefe works. After Steiglitz's death, O'Keefe donated his collection of her works to Fisk University, a historically black university in Nashville, with the stipulation that the work be displayed as a complete set.

The financially troubled unversity is wishing to sell a share of the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. The university and the museum would then split the display time for the collection evenly. The O'Keefe Museum in New Mexico, as administrator of Mrs. O'Keefe's estate, claimed that the university's arrangement with Crystal Bridges violated the stipulation that Mrs. O'Keefe had placed upon the collection, and further claimed that the collection should returned to the estate rather than allowing Fisk to enter into these types of arrangements.

"[Public galleries] see these things as assets, and they sell them off to pay their gas bills, which is frustrating," said Stan Mabry, owner of Stanford Fine Art in Belle Meade [a Nashville suburb]. "Long term, they'll regret it. I wish there was a way to get the city, the state museum, collectors and others to pitch in and keep them in Nashville." [emphasis added]

As a Middle Tennesseean, I would love for this work to stay in Nashville permanently. It seems to me that the larger issue is the right of the public galleries to do with their collections what they see fit. I understand that donors give to public galleries and museums in order to keep works on display for the good of all, but if a museum can't keep its doors open due to poor cash flow, then all of its pieces leave the public view, obviously a far worse fate. Unfortunately, these decisions will be for the courts to take moving forward, and who knows how that might end up?

If you are a collector of fine art, you need an inventory of those works for your insurance carrier as well as a separate insurance policy. Keep this in mind as you build your collection.

Farley Home Services provide home inventory documentation for everyone regardless of your stance on deaccessioning. Please visit EverySingleItem.com for more information. Thanks for reading!