AAMD Rules Need to be Deaccessioned

Last November, the National Academy Museum in New York, facing a severe financial crisis, decided by a vote of 181-1 among its artist-members to sell two paintings from its collection, by Frederic Edwin Church and Sanford Robinson Gifford, to help pay for operating expenses; it had earlier ruled out selling its Fifth Avenue home. The reaction of the Association of Art Museum Directors was swift and merciless. The AAMD called on its members to suspend loans to the Academy and to refrain from collaborating with it on exhibitions. The private sale, reportedly to a foundation, raised close to $15 million.

In January, Brandeis University, facing a financial crisis of its own [see Front Page, Mar. ’09], announced that it would close its … Read More