Financial strains exacerbated by pandemic-related impacts have left some museums across the U.S. struggling with the question of whether to deaccession artworks. In the early part of the coronavirus pandemic, when the economy tanked, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) relaxed rules around selling artwork from museums' collections. New guidelines stipulated that funds raised could be used for more than buying other artworks, without penalty, at least until April 2022. Since .
The facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Courtesy of the Met.
The practice of deaccessioning has never failed to incite controversy. But the stakes are even higher now that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York one of the wealthiest, largest, and best-attended museums in the world has suggested it is considering selling off some of its art as it faces a $150 million shortfall.
The fact that a leading professional organization relaxed its guidelines surrounding deaccessioning last spring, which means that the Met would draw no official censure from the move, is of no consequence to the many experts and observers including former museum leadership who swiftly voiced their opposition.
North Country Public Radio Last March, the Hyde Collection, a historic house museum in Glens Falls, closed to the public when the pandemic hit, along with virtually every museum in the state. In August, the Hyde reopened with all the new features of the COVID era: plexiglass shields and markers for social distancing. But capacity, said the museum’s CEO, Norm Dascher, remained “very limited.” “We only allow two people at a time in 15 minute intervals, so we never had more than 20 people in the museum,” Dascher said, noting the museum lost not only ticket revenue over the past year but also corporate sponsorships tied to exhibitions. Organizers had to cancel its biggest yearly fundraiser, a gala, in September.
Ruins of the medieval Armenian cathedral at the ancient site of Ani in eastern Turkey Dallet-Alba/Alamy
An agreement between Turkey and the United States to combat the illicit trade in antiquities and other cultural property has divided historians and preservationists over whether the accord will curb smuggling or undermine minority heritage that faces neglect or worse.
A memorandum of understanding signed last month imposes US import restrictions on archaeological objects 250 years or older that the Turkish government has not licenced to leave the country. The aim is “to reduce the incentive for pillage of irreplaceable archaeological and ethnological material representing Turkey’s cultural heritage,” according to the agreement, which becomes binding once the governments notify each other that their procedures for enforcement are ready.
26 January 2021
Centuries of heritage belonging to Christians and other minorities in Turkey are under threat following the agreement of new import restrictions between the US and Turkey, according to Armenian and Christian groups.
They have condemned as “reckless” and “a travesty” the bilateral Memorandum signed by the Trump administration in its final hours whereby the US has agreed to place import restrictions on heritage objects from Turkey and to repatriate “trafficked” cultural property. This, in effect, places the care and control of the vast heritage of all cultural, religious and ethnic groups in the hands of the Turkish government, which has a long track record of “destroying minorities” and their holy sites, even to the point of “erasing their memory from the landscape of their ancient, indigenous, homelands”, in the words of Armenian leader Aram Hamparian.