{"id":1110,"date":"2014-03-12T13:23:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T20:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2014-03-13T11:21:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T18:21:41","slug":"economics-of-deaccessioning-a-bit-theoretical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/economics-of-deaccessioning-a-bit-theoretical\/","title":{"rendered":"Economics of deaccessioning (a bit theoretical) (updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sounds<\/a>Why is it so wrong that a museum would sell works from its collection? More specifically, why is it wrong to sell works where the proceeds from the sale would not be committed to the purchase of other works for the collection? I know of the policies of the Association of Art Museum Directors against the practice, but I am economist by training, and I remember when first studying in the field of cultural economics to being a little puzzled: what is so bad about having the freedom to manage and trade assets over time to ensure the institution is best using its total resources? What is so wrong about possibly trading objects of art for cash that can be used for building improvement, or endowment to generate increased annual cash flow for operations?<\/p>\n

Two, related reasons come to mind. The first is that a prohibition on sales of art acts as a useful constraint on management. It lets the director know that should she fail to prudently manage the organization’s finances, she cannot rely on the museum’s collection as a safety net. There is a literature in the field of financial management that holds that corporate firms will sometimes carry more debt than would seem to make sense, in order to force managers to exercise careful oversight of the firm’s finances, lest it go bankrupt. Rules against deaccessioning can thus be seen as a discipline device over managers.<\/p>\n

The second is that it allows the institution to make a commitment to donors of art that the donation will not simply be converted to cash for expenditures on things the donor is not so keen to support. Thus, managers are doubly constrained: the trustees of the organization do not want managers looting the capital represented by the collection, and neither do donors.<\/p>\n

But there’s a problem: how does a museum commit<\/em> to not deaccessioning works to generate funds not being applied to new acquisitions? How do we make promises about future actions credible, such that a potential donor has confidence in the long run ownership of his donation? In general, the best way we have to convince someone of a promise we have made is to make it very costly for ourselves to break the promise, to bind ourselves<\/em> in some way.<\/p>\n

And the museum world seems to do this. By creating a culture against deaccessioning-for-operating-funds, by having strong sanctions against any museum that acts against the rules, museum trustees are able to constrain management (‘don’t think you can sell art if you run into financial troubles – it cannot be done’) and satisfy donors (‘we couldn’t sell your work for operating funds even if we wanted to, the penalties are too great’).<\/p>\n

What have I missed?<\/p>\n

UPDATE: In other words, I don’t agree with the Times<\/em> that this is an issue about “ethical standards<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is it so wrong that a museum would sell works from its collection? More specifically, why is it wrong to sell works where the proceeds from the sale would not be committed to the purchase of other works for the collection? I know of the policies of the Association of Art Museum Directors against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Herbert_James_Draper_Ulysses_and_the_Sirens.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-hU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2327,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2018\/03\/is-there-an-ethical-case-against-deaccessioning-by-museums\/","url_meta":{"origin":1110,"position":0},"title":"Is there an ethical case against deaccessioning by museums? Updated","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to a post by artsjournal.com blog neighbor Lee Rosenbaum on proposed sales of works by the Berkshire Museum and the Lasalle University Art Museum, I asked via Twitter whether there was a coherent case to be made that deaccessioning is unethical, and not simply (sometimes) a case of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1629,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/10\/deaccessioning-a-puzzle-and-a-speculative-answer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1110,"position":1},"title":"Deaccessioning: A puzzle, and a speculative answer (updated)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"October 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is it considered unethical for nonprofit or public sector museums to sell art, except for cases when the proceeds will be directly used to acquire new art? At the Art Law Blog, Donn Zaretsky points out that if a private collector decided to open a space to display some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"so, why no deaccessioning?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/ask-a-curator12.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2034,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/05\/things-i-do-not-understand-about-the-ticket-resale-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1110,"position":2},"title":"Things I do not understand about the ticket-resale debate","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Guardian reports that next week Professor Michael Waterson will release a UK government commissioned report on the regulation of ticket resale. I'm glad to hear it, because it might shed some light on an issue which the press seems to find simple - touts are ripping off consumers and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"maximum mark-up 57 cents","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/shea-300x72.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1295,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/art-and-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":1110,"position":3},"title":"Art and money","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A.O. Scott, in his Times article \"The Paradox of Art as Work,\" begins: There are few modern relationships as fraught as the one between art and money. Are they mortal enemies, secret lovers or perfect soul mates? Is the bond between them a source of pride or shame, a marriage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"buy and sell","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/art-fair.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2836,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/03\/it-is-ok-for-a-college-to-sell-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":1110,"position":4},"title":"It is OK for a college to sell art","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"You are the president of a small, private liberal arts college that has fallen on hard times. Your enrolment has declined by 39% since 2016, you have had to cut academic programs, and your dormitories are badly in need of repair - attracting students is of paramount concern, but there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Valpo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Valpo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Valpo.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Valpo.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Valpo.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Valpo.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2842,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/03\/really-it-is-ok-for-a-college-to-sell-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":1110,"position":5},"title":"Really, it is OK for a college to sell art","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 17, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago I wrote a post re Valparaiso University's plans to sell three paintings, with an estimated total market value of $10 million, to deal with its rather dire financial situation, and to make investments seen necessary to attract students, whose numbers have fallen dramatically over the past\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/postbox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}