The Deaccession Singalong

Full disclosure, in advance, of proposed art sales from museum collections is an issue ripe for a united art journalists' front. I am happy to see that my radically conservative proposal, previously propounded in CultureGrrl, has gained a bit of traction on the West Coast.

On July 26, I wrote:

Museums should identify on their websites any works that they have targeted for disposal, several months in advance of their sale. This gives notice to the public and to the state attorney general's office that part of the public patrimony may go private. The posting should include a description of the work and the reasons why it is deemed expendable.

Citing this post as her inspiration, Jen Graves, a writer for The Stranger, Seattle's alternative weekly, asked the Seattle Art Museum for a list of recent deaccessions. She reported on Aug. 24 that she "was told SAM doesn't publish" such information. Graves added that her attempts to get lists from Christie's and Sotheby's of works they had auctioned for the museum were also unavailing. (In July, I had made similar requests of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Christie's and Sotheby's, with similar results.)

Graves has just posted an update:

Yesterday, SAM director Mimi Gates told me that SAM has decided to change its policy, and to start publishing a list of deaccessions in its annual report every year.

Score one for crusading journalism!

But although that's a good beginning, it falls short of what I feel is needed: advance public disclosure of proposed sales, with an explanation of why the works are expendable. Jen agrees, and includes a long quote from CultureGrrl on the subject.

I'll bet a lot of other journalists agree, too. If one reporter asks, it's an ignorable annoyance. Two, a dismissible coincidence. But imagine if reporters all over the country decided to ask at the same time for the same thing. Now that would be a Movement!

So everyone tickle your keyboards and sing along with me...in three-part harmony:

You can get any info you want
At Mimi's Restaurant.

(Note to Readers Under 40: If don't know what song I'm referencing above, please download Arlo Guthrie's civil-disobedience anthem, "Alice's Restaurant," to your iPod immediately!)

Would any museum directors care to join The Movement? Walk right in (it's around the back), and sign up with a BlogBack right here: culturegrrl@nj.rr.com.