If anyone doubts the ripple effect of museum deaccessions, take a look at Fort Dodge, Iowa. There, the city-owned Blanden Memorial Art Museum is under fire for moving to sell more than 370 works of art in a sale set for today. Though museum leaders said the sale has been planned for a long time, and was triggered by an Association of American Museums report that criticized “overcrowding” at the museum, it wasn’t until pressed that the museum disclosed the works it planned to deaccession.
Worse, until yesterday, there were no prohibitions on purchases by museum staff or trustees and the sale included a “buy it now” option, causing worries that the Blanden would not achieve decent prices for the works on offer. The museum was also planning to sell works given to the museum by the federal government. According to the Fort Dodge Messenger:
[Yesterday, the museum] removed eight items from the sale list. Seven of those items were given to the museum in 1935, two years after it opened, by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. That agency commissioned unemployed artists to create works during the Great Depression.
The withdrawal of those pieces came after the U.S. General Services Administration contacted City Manager David Fierke on Thursday and asked the museum to refrain from selling any Depression-era artwork commissioned by the government. That agency requested that any such unwanted works be sent to the federal government.
Museum director Margaret Skove said the money raised will go toward conservation — not, as rules for larger museums would dictate, for acquisitions.
Meanwhile, a major benefactor, William Doan, had said “Cancel the auction or walk into the darkness of an uncertain future that may damage the reputation of the museum and the city for decades to come.”
Once the auction was allowed to proceed, according to the Messenger, Doan said that:
the Doan Family Foundation, of which he is the president and chairman, will no longer support the museum with money or gifts of art. Over the years, that foundation has given more than 50 artworks to the museum.
”We are never coming back, ever,” he said. ”We could not trust the museum ever again.”
Here’s the Messenger‘s account, with lists of the works to be sold and those removed.
True, the art involved isn’t by the likes of Eakins or Kandinsky, but that doesn’t mean this example isn’t worthy of attention. It’s the trend that matters, and even small museums have to be held to standards.
UPDATE, 10/11 A.M.: According to the Messenger, the auction raised about $10,000 for the museum.
UPDATE 2: And it gets worse — see comment by Doan below.
Photo: Courtesy Blanden Memorial Art Museum