Monday, November 29, 2010

Selling Out: Should Museums Sell Art to Survive?



Desperate times call for desperate measures. But what happens when desperate times strike cultural institutions such as museums? The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (aka, Cimam) recently restated their opposition to museums taking the “nuclear option” of selling off works of art not to improve their collections but, instead, simply to keep operating financially. Others claim that in today’s lagging global economy we need leaner, meaner museums or risk having no museums at all. At the heart of this great “selling out” rests the question of who decides what is to be sold. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Selling Out."

3 comments:

Barbara Wells Sarudy said...

Museums have been doing this for years, just a little more quietly. Often wondered when someone donated something precious to them, if it might not be sold off in a few years & how often donation contracts are broken.

I'm finally getting this life thing, kinda said...

i do not wish to bother you, but in researching a painting by Albrecht Durer I came across a posting you have from 2009 as well as listing comic books. I am wondering if you ever traded comic books for a painting in San Diego? I have a funny story about that if you are the one.

Bob said...

Hi, IFGTLS,

Although I love both Durer and comic books, alas I've never traded comics for a painting, or vice versa. Blogging doesn't pay well enough for me to actually purchase or trade for actual art.

--Bob