Deaccession Updates: Montclair, Hirshhorn

Floundering founder: William Merritt Chase, "Portrait of William B. Dickson," 1905

[Updated here, with subsequent Hirshhorn disposal of Eakinses at Sotheby's.]

At yesterday's American art sale at Christie's, the Montclair Art Museum attempted to sell some 28 works and the Hirshhorn Museum put three Eakinses on the block.

Montclair sold 23 works (five unsold), for a hammer total of $2.28 million. Before the sale, the museum withdrew from auction a 1905 William Merritt Chase portrait of William B. Dickson, after Dickson's descendants hotly objected. The sitter was a founder of the Montclair Museum,

Peggy McGlone of the Newark Star-Ledger reports:

Museum spokesman Michael Gillespie Thursday defended the decision to sell the work, saying the museum has another, higher quality painting by Chase in its collection. However, [Lora] Urbanelli [Montclair's director] told [William] Ware [Dickson's grandson] that officials looked closer at Dickson's role in the early history of the museum and decided it would not sell it next week.

Museum officials said they tried to contact members of Dickson's family but were unable to locate them. The Chase portrait of Dickson was expected to sell for $25,000-$35,000.

In fact, the the museum's officials were already well aware of Dickson's role in the institution's history, even before the auction catalogue had gone to press. Christie's entry for the Chase (Lot 70) states:

William B. Dickson was a founder of the Montclair Art Museum and a civil (sic) leader in Montclair, New Jersey during the late 19th and early 20th century.

I gather that the furious grandson wasn't as "civil" as his civic-minded forebear.

At Christie's contemporary sales on May 13 and 14, Monclair's Pollock was knocked down for $420,000; a total hammer price of $211,000 was fetched for Montclair consignments by Motherwell, Stamos and Reinhardt. (The museum's take may be reduced by an undisclosed seller's commission.)

Grand total so far (not counting costumes sold by Montclair through Augusta Auctions): $2.9 million (hammer price). More Montclair disposals are planned (scroll down) next month at Christie's.

And in other deaccessions developments: The Washington Post today published this report on the Hirshhorn's attempted disposal of three Eakinses, one of which failed to sell at the yesterday's Christie's sale.

The Post's headline is another unfortunate example of inflation-by-buyers premium. It erroneously states:

Hirshhorn Gets $461,000 in Auction of Eakins Works

But that amount includes the fee paid by buyers to the auction house and doesn't take into account possible seller's commissions. The hammer prices for the Hirshhorn's two sold Eakinses totaled $380,000.