It's called Preserve

Art Museum rule # 1:

Do not sell anything from your collection to make a buck.

Art Museum rule #2:

Look at Art Museum rule #1.

Since Monday night, I've been closely reading about Brandis University's decision to close the Rose Museum and sell off (some of) their collection due to their budget deficit. Their collection includes works from modern & contemporary artist such as Williem de Kooning, Nam June Paik, Helen Frankenthaler and Andy Warhol. 

I've been baffled for awhile about this new trend. Just last month I've been keeping my eyes on the National Academy Museum to deaccession works of art from it's collection to pay off their expenses. The museum is currently blacklisted in the art world now.

A statement recently released from the American Association of Museum about this ordeal:

The American Association of Museums is alarmed and dismayed at the decision by Brandeis University to close the Rose Museum and sell the objects from its collection. Such a drastic action would be an irreparable loss to the university and its community. Present and future generations of students and the public would be deprived of a priceless educational experience.

Museums hold collections in the public trust. These collections are a part of our common heritage and belong, in a moral sense, to all of us. It is the museum’s job to preserve them for future generations.

By selling its art collection for cash to the highest bidder to erase a temporary deficit, Brandeis University is in fundamental violation of the public trust responsibilities it accepted the day it founded the Rose Museum. Such a sale is also a betrayal of the donors, who generously gave art for the benefit of the students and the public, not for paying bills. This is a direct violation of the AAM Code of Ethics for museums.

If it cannot afford to maintain and exhibit its collection, we urge Brandeis University to seek another steward of it. There are many fine museums in the region capable of caring for these works, even on a temporary basis, while the university explores other options. In choosing an alternate solution to the sale and irrevocable loss of the collection that was entrusted to its care, the university would serve as a role model for its students, faculty and community.

Ford W. Bell
President
American Association of Museums

Jehuda Reinharz, the president of Brandis wrote an email that can be read at Modern Art Notes, which is basically blah blah blah, wah wah wah.

This is all making me think of my application to an art museum's summer internship. One of the essays I had to write was what is a museum? What is it's purpose and it's future? I'd written rambled about preserving and public responsibilities. Responsibilities.