A closer look at what the Brooklyn Museum is selling off

[left-of-center2012]

The Brooklyn Museum is auctioning 12 works to raise money for the care of its collections. Not long ago, this deaccessioning move would have stirred strenuous objections and even precipitated penalties from the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), which has long mandated that museums sell works only to finance additional art acquisitions. But in April, the association revised its rules to help American museums struggling with a financial crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Until April 2022, they are free to use the proceeds of art sales for “the direct care” of their collections.

Anne Pasternak, the director of the Brooklyn Museum, says that the institution is planning to set up a $40m fund to pay for the collection’s care that could generate $2m a year for that purpose. The proceeds from the sale of the 12 works, all consigned to Christie’s for auctions in October, may amount to as much as $3.5m.

“The proceeds will be used to create a permanent restricted Collections Care Fund to support in perpetuity the work of our curators, registrars, conservators and others in preserving, protecting and caring for our collections—one of the most important functions of any museum,” Pasternak says in an email. She adds that the money will go toward purposes like proper storage, conservation, framing as well as toward the salaries paid to staff members involved in caring for the collection.

The biggest-ticket item is Lucas Cranach the Elder’s 16th-century Lucretia, an oil on panel valued by Christie’s at $1.2m to $1.8m.

An 1868 landscape painting by Courbet, Bords de la Loue avec rochers à gauche ... its sale estimate is $400,000 to $600,000.

Corot’s Italienne debut tenant une cruche from the 1820s, with an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

A full-length 15th-century Saint Jerome by Donato de’ Bardi ... estimated at $80,000 to $120,000.

Also consigned to Christie’s are works by Giovanni dal Ponte, Francesco Botticini, Lorenzo Costa, Henrik Willem Mesdag, Charles-François Daubigny, Philip Wilson Steer, Jehan-Georges Vibert and an unidentified artist from the Netherlandish School.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/a-closer-look-at-what-the-brooklyn-museum-is-jettisoning

[LakeArenal]

1. To me the bad part of this is.....

Billionaires will snap these up like French fries while the world can’t buy shit.

Same as I feel about rescuing Norte Dame in less than a week with hundreds of billions while those that worship there get nothing.

[appalachiablue]

2. Glad it's to help museum operations and staff

in this extraordinary time, otherwise museum assocations have strict rules about deaccessioning and selling off items in collections, for good reason. These nice pictures which will very likely go into private hands will be out of public view for a long while.

[sanatanadharma]

3. Museums selling their commonwealth; the people become poorer

Another example of converting the 'common-wealth' into individual ownership.

I might manage to buy a museum entrance. I'll never be invited to the art-collectors unveil party.

[left-of-center2012]

4. Why do you say a museum's collection is 'commonwealth'?

Except perhaps in a government museum, the art work belongs to the muesum,
not to 'the people'.