A closer look at what the Brooklyn Museum is selling off

[left-of-center2012]

The Brooklyn Museum is auctioning 12 works to raise money for the care of its collections. Not long ago, this deaccessioning move would have stirred strenuous objections and even precipitated penalties from the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), which has long mandated that museums sell works only to finance additional art acquisitions. But in April, the association revised its rules to help American museums struggling with a financial crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. Until April 2022, they are free to use the proceeds of art sales for “the direct care” of their collections.

Anne Pasternak, the director of the Brooklyn Museum, says that the institution is planning to set up a $40m fund to pay for the collection’s care that could generate $2m a year for that purpose. The proceeds from the sale of the 12 works, all consigned to Christie’s for auctions in October, may amount to as much as $3.5m.

“The proceeds will be used to create a permanent restricted Collections Care Fund to support in perpetuity the work of our curators, registrars, conservators and others in preserving, protecting and caring for our collections—one of the most important functions of any museum,” Pasternak says in an email. She adds that the money will go toward purposes like proper storage, conservation, framing as well as toward the salaries paid to staff members involved in caring for the collection.

The biggest-ticket item is Lucas Cranach the Elder’s 16th-century Lucretia, an oil on panel valued by Christie’s at $1.2m to $1.8m.

An 1868 landscape painting by Courbet, Bords de la Loue avec rochers à gauche ... its sale estimate is $400,000 to $600,000.

Corot’s Italienne debut tenant une cruche from the 1820s, with an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

A full-length 15th-century Saint Jerome by Donato de’ Bardi ... estimated at $80,000 to $120,000.

Also consigned to Christie’s are works by Giovanni dal Ponte, Francesco Botticini, Lorenzo Costa, Henrik Willem Mesdag, Charles-François Daubigny, Philip Wilson Steer, Jehan-Georges Vibert and an unidentified artist from the Netherlandish School.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/a-closer-look-at-what-the-brooklyn-museum-is-jettisoning