Museum Alliance and Directors Group Issue Open Letter Criticizing Berkshire Museum’s Deaccession Plan
July 25, 2017 | In the PressFrom ArtNews (http://www.artnews.com/2017/07/25/museum-alliance-and-directors-group-issue-open-letter-criticizing-berkshire-museums-deaccession-plan/)
Following the Berkshire Museum’s decision to deaccession 40 works from its collection, the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors have issued an open letter to the institution. The news comes ahead of a planned sale at Sotheby’s, where paintings and sculptures by Frederic Edwin Church, Alexander Calder, and others from the museum’s collection will hit the auction block later this year.
On Monday, a Berkshire Eagle article revealed previously undisclosed details about the sale. Of the deaccessioned objects, the most controversial have been two Norman Rockwell works considered to be of particular importance given Rockwell’s looming status in the area. (The Norman Rockwell Museum is located in the idyllic Berkshire mountain town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts.).
Van Shields, the Berkshire Museum’s executive director, said in that report that proceeds from works sold at Sotheby’s will go toward the institution’s $60 million “reinvention plan.” Included in those designs are a new lobby and a revamped business model.
The Berkshire Museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums; selling its holdings for capital gains goes against the AAM’s ethical code, which recommends against considering “potential monetary value” when “determining whether or not to deaccession” artwork.
