To Sell or Not to Sell? That is the Question

Deaccessioning art is a museum practice where institutions cycle out works from their collection. Typically this is done by selling the art at auction, but in the case of The RISD Museum, officials gave the items that were to be removed to RISD students, allowing them to create new works with the material, furthering the objects’ lives and legacies. These efforts by The RISD Museum to reframe collections care are far from the norm, and often deaccessioning art is seen as controversial, if not altogether taboo.

The Association of Art Museum Directors created a set of guidelines to help institutions navigate the thorny ethical questions inherent in deaccessioning art. Since 2020, the AAMD has softened its expectations in order to ease the financial burden many museums experienced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of the motivations, however, few deaccessions are met without some amount of scandal.

Here are stories of some of the most fraught deaccessions in recent history.

In 2020, The Baltimore Museum of Art made the bold decision to sell works by Brice Marden, Clyfford Still and Andy Warhol, estimated to bring in $65 million. Those funds were to be used to raise current employee wages and to acquire a substantial amount of works by women artists and people of color.

“Institutions exist to serve people, employees, and audiences,” Christopher Bedford, former BMA director, told Artnet in an interview. “If the majority of institutions in this country are white-centered, which they are, then it stands to reason that the collection itself is emblematic of that bias. Why shouldn’t we be able to, in some measured and controlled fashion, access those resources to properly compensate staff and diversify collections?”

Bedford’s plans, however, were stopped short when more than 200 former Baltimore Museum trustees and community members sent a letter to Maryland’s attorney general asking to halt the sale.

Arnold Lehman, who was the museum’s director from 1979 to 1997 and was directly involved in the acquisition of the Marden and Warhol paintings, sent his own letter, declaring: “I am supportive of paying employees a living wage. However, I am opposed to the manner in which the museum is attempting to reach these goals and the need to cannibalize the heart of the collection.”

As of now, the paintings have still not gone to auction, and Bedford has moved on from The Baltimore Museum of Art to become the Helen and Charles Schwab Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Valparaiso University, a small college of about 3,000 students outside Chicago, planned to sell four paintings in their art collection, including Georgia O’Keefe’s “Rust Red Hill.” The sale price of the collective works was estimated to be approximately $10 million; the funds of which were budgeted to refurbish freshman dorms in an effort to address dwindling enrollment.

Richard Brauer, founding director of the Valparaiso University Art Museum — which has since been renamed in his honor—and Philipp Brockington, a retired law professor and benefactor of one of the museum’s endowment funds, opposed the sale and tried to sue the museum. But in late 2023, Porter County Superior Court judge Jeffrey Thode threw out the lawsuit on the grounds that Brauer and Brockington were not directly connected to the trust that initially gifted the work to the university museum.

A campus petition to stop the sale gathered more than 25,000 signatures. Despite these efforts, Valparaiso University President Jose D. Padilla concluded that the sale was “consistent with the donor’s intent in that it will result in more students on campus and more students able to appreciate the art displayed at the university.”

The Whitney Museum is currently defending its decision to sell seven works of art, including the Edward Hopper painting, “Cobb’s Barns” at Sotheby’s last year. (“Cobb’s Barn” is notable as President Obama had the painting on loan while in the White House.)

Hilton Kramer, the late chief art critic for the New York Times, had long been openly critical of the ways he felt the museum had treated the acquisition of Hopper’s estate, often taking them to task in his columns for the furtive sales of several paintings they had arranged in previous years.

However, Jane Panetta, curator and director of the collection, explained that the decision was made in large part to adhere to the Whitney’s founding mission, which is to showcase the works of contemporary, living artists. “We’re always thinking about how one defines ‘the museum of American art’,” she revealed. “We think that means the collection has to evolve. We have to try and close critical gaps, and having endowment funds for acquisitions is a key means to doing that.”

As museums all over the world struggle with how to celebrate their collections, while also serving their communities at large, one thing is certain: the power of art has never been stronger.