Open Forum

Kristen, it is always helpful if your museum has a collections management policy in place that covers issues such as this one. (I can send you a sample, if you like.) Be that as it may, I am wondering at the outset if your museum accepted the artwork with the understanding that it would be sold. If that were the case, it would have been an unnecessary complication to accession the artwork. Again, that is water under the bridge. At museums where I worked, the collections management policies listed a number of alternative means of disposal for deaccessioned items, to allow for a variety of ethical choices for sale (or discarding deteriorated or valueless items).

To answer your question specifically, there was always one preferred means of sale: public auction. That put the transaction at arm's length from the museum itself, of course. Depending upon the type and value of the deaccessioned items, we might employ a local auction company -- in one case, we realized less than $1,000 for dozens of objects. In one unique case, we enlisted an international auction house, and one object reached a world record price. We usually requested that the name of the museum would not be mentioned in the catalog or during the sale itself, but at least once the museum's name was linked to every object we were selling after we had made such a request. In the end, there was not a single adverse comment. Your results may vary.

Please let me know if I may be of further assistance to you.

Best,

Bruce

A. Bruce MacLeish, Curator Emeritus, Newport Restoration Foundation

I would like to echo Bruce in stating the value of having a collections management policy in place to manage the accessioning, deacessioning and disposal of artworks in a collection.  A factor to consider is if your donors have taken a tax deduction for this item.  Here at CU Boulder we must wait seven years before considering the sale of items donated for which the University has provided a signed 8283 form.  Ethically, you will want to ensure that board members, staff and even the original donors (I've heard of it happening) do not participate in the auction of your deacessioned works.

sincerely,

There are private resources available to you which the museum can engage for the sale of artwork.  Navigating these complexities is what art advisors do in order to reap the best result.  In arrangement of sale with auctionhouses these private art advisors negotiate preferred rates and they access smaller regional auctionhouses with knowledge of their appetite, sell through rate for different types of merchandise and they would know how to deal with specific objects.  

I would imagine that with the great wealth transfer that there will be more need to understand available resources and options.  Please let me know if I can be helpful.

Best,

Anne