What Not to Do In a Deaccession: Lessons from the Franklin Institute and the Berkshire Museum
Last week we discussed acquiring collections from collectors, and what a process that can be. This week, however, we are tackling a more complicated issue: deaccession, that is, getting rid of collections for whatever reason. The reason I say this is more complicated is because, for many, what you get rid of is placed under local scrutiny, and even more so, the way in which you do so. Sometimes institutions’ missions change, and holding on to a specific collection that no longer fits the mission makes no sense. At the same time, though, this is not to say you can scatter such a collection to the four winds and hope for the best.
A streetview image of the Franklin Institute.
Unfortunately, according to James Green, this is exactly what the Franklin Institute did with their original library. Per Green, “The Franklin Institute was one of the first libraries to specialize in the literature of tech and manufacturing, and its location in the 19th century industrial center made it even more interesting.” But by 1977 the Institute was moving towards being a science and technology museum for education of the masses, and the library was only of interest to historians, doing nothing for their new mission. Thus, in 1977 they started selling off parts of the library, a process which ended with the library’s complete liquidation in the following decades.
Initially I saw no real issue with the Franklin Institute selling off the library. Certainly, it would be nice to donate the collections to a local institution that might have use of them, but still that was their prerogative. Green went on to say, however, that the Institute was not selling these exclusively to local institutions. When they dissolved the library in the end, collections had been sold part and parcel to entities from here in Philadelphia, to Bethesda, Maryland, to even London in the U.K. Collections were not sold in whole, as archival best practices would advise, but simply sold in pieces to whoever would pay for them.
A recreation on Wikiart of Norman Rockwell's "Shuffleton's Barbershop," one of the paintings the Berkshire Museum is selling from its collection.
This treatment of sold off collections is not altogether rare either. In 2018, Nina Simon wrote of the Berkshire Museum’s decision to deaccession, and sell, forty of its most expensive works of art. The Museum argued that since these artworks no longer fit into their mission, they were free to dispose of them as they saw fit. As with the Franklin Institute, at first I was sympathetic. This seemed like a logical progression. That is, until Simon explained two of the most expensive works’ provenance – they were donated directly by Norman Rockwell for the benefit of his community.
These stories raise a plethora of fascinating questions that I would love your thoughts on, dear reader. What responsibility does the institution have to its constituency in its deaccessioning process? Specifically, regarding the Rockwell story, what responsibility does an institution have to its donators in deaccessioning their gifts or sales? Is there a discernible difference between how they can deaccession gifts versus purchased objects? What are some ways to work around these issues of authority in the deaccessioning process? In my next post, I will try to create a kind of model for how to circumnavigate them, but for now, I greatly look forward to your thoughts.
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Sources:
James N. Green, "The Franklin Institute Sale," Annual Report of The Library Company of Philadelphia for 1987, pp. 7-15.
Derek Fincham, “Deaccession of art from the public trust,” Art, Antiquity & Law, 16.2 (July 2011), pp. 93-129.
Nina Simon, “Instead of Selling Objects, Build Public Trust,” Museum 2.0, January 8, 2018. http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2018/01/instead-of-selling-objects-build-public.html. (Accessed 4/2/18).