Esta noticia nos sorprende. Los museos tradicionalmente no pueden vender sus piezas a menos que sea para adquirir otra obra de arte de más importancia para su colección. No se permite vender obras para subrir los gastos operacionales de un museo - hasta ahora (?) Apoyarán esta decisión otros museos? Qué consecuencias podrá tener para la AAM y los préstamos entre museos?
------Museums can sell off art again, por Erica Orden
The state will allow emergency regulations that prohibited cash-strapped museums from selling their artworks to cover expenses to expire next month.
The Education Department's Board of Regents, which oversees museums, voted Tuesday to let the rule lapse but ordered the creation of an advisory group to weigh in on matters concerning museum collections.
The Regents had been expected to make the rule permanent, in part because of the collapse of support for a bill in the state Legislature—which the city's biggest museums had fought—that would have outlawed museums from selling works from their permanent collections to cover operating costs. But the board's cultural education committee voted Monday to recommend that the full board allow the temporary regulations to expire Oct. 8, a step criticized by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who sponsored the bill.
"This is the precursor of the massive transfer of art held in the public trust into private hands," said Mr. Brodsky, who called the decision a "disastrous move."
Mr. Brodsky accused the Regents of reneging on an agreement to make permanent the emergency rules after the demise of his bill, and of doing so behind his back. "This is a violation of the duties of the Regents to defend the public, and to do it…without even informing their partners, is evidence that they couldn't sustain the scrutiny of this decision," he said.
"While the emergency regulations were in place, the Board of Regents sought input from the museum community statewide and found there was no consensus on the efficacy of those emergency regulations," Education Commissioner David Steiner said in a statement. "Consequently, those regulations will be allowed to expire, allowing the prior regulations regarding museum collections to once again take effect."
The version of the regulations set to take effect on Oct.8 states that proceeds from the sale of an item in a museum's collection be used "only for the acquisition, preservation, protection or care of collections," but the emergency rules more sharply limited an institution's options for selling parts of a collection, a practice known as de-accessioning.
The emergency policies were implemented in December 2008, in response to concerns that the rules governing collections were not specific enough to address questions arising during the financial crisis.
The step was prompted by several incidents, including a proposal, subsequently abandoned, by Fort Ticonderoga, a restored military fortress in the Adirondack Park, to sell some works to compensate for a deficit. In December 2008, the Upper East Side's National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts sold two Hudson River School paintings to raise operating funds and prevent its closure.
The director of the Museum Association of New York, which along with the Regents helped draft Mr. Brodsky's bill, said the vote was an unexpected turn of events. "We were prepared to hear that the Regents were going to make the temporary rule permanent, so it was a surprise to find out that the tide had changed and there was going to be a total rethinking of that rule," director Anne Ackerson said. She speculated that the outcome was the result of the objection of several major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, whose director, Glenn Lowry, sent a letter Ms. Ackerson observed "being passed around."
A spokeswoman for the museum confirmed that it sent a letter asking the Regents to reconsider the emergency measures because the museum felt they were too restrictive.
The director of the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, Michael Botwinick, said he was "disappointed" by the decision. "I think Brodsky's legislation got it right, and I think they should pay some real attention to the financial troubles of the smaller institutions and less to the bureaucratic concerns of the larger institutions," Mr. Botwinick, who is also a board member of the museum association, said. "I'm discouraged that we've got back to the status quo."
The advisory group the Regents ordered established will be "representative of the state's diverse museum community," Mr. Steiner said. A spokesman for the department said members will be drawn from institutions varying in size, function and geographical location. The board is expected to further discuss the creation of the group at its October meeting.
The board's decision this week will have no effect on state regulations that prohibit the pledging as collateral of works from a museum's permanent collection.
The Wall Street Journal reported in August that the Chelsea Art Museum's entire permanent collection was pledged as collateral for a loan needed to pay its mortgage. The museum faces the possible revocation of its charter, removal of its board of trustees or referral of the matter to the state attorney general's Charities Bureau by the Education Department. A spokesman for the department, Tom Dunn, said it is "still studying" the Chelsea decision. "The staff is collecting information and continues to do that," he said.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario