Comments on: Hard Sell http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/ Reflections on art and architecture by TIME critic Richard Lacayo. Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:49:16 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: rajelyas http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-383 rajelyas Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:57:57 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-383 The work of art stored in a museum should be very simple and pleasing to the eye.Museums preserve not only objects, but the thinking that supports the decision that certain objects are worthy of conservation, study, and public display. The visitors should not only view the objects with amazement but also leave with enriched knowledge. Raj The work of art stored in a museum should be very simple and pleasing to the eye.Museums preserve not only objects, but the thinking that supports the decision that certain objects are worthy of conservation, study, and public display. The visitors should not only view the objects with amazement but also leave with enriched knowledge.

Raj

]]> By: alexbarker http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-350 alexbarker Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:02:50 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-350 One additional wrinkle. Relatively few museums choose to capitalize their collections, that is, to treat them as financial assets on their balance sheets. Museums are allowed to exclude collections from such reporting, but only under specific circumstances. Under FAS 116 museums that don't capitalize their collections must have policies in place requiring that proceeds from the sale of works be used only to acquire additional works--in other words, once you’ve decided to exclude the collections from financial reporting, they can't suddenly re-appear as a rainy-day fund in time of need. To my mind there are many good reasons that museums shouldn't fund operations with deaccessions. The FAS accounting guidelines highlight one of them. Museum collections are intrinsically understood to be different in character than financial assets. They're created and built to achieve the defined mission of the institution, not as a hedge against hard times, where museums collect the most art at the lowest price as evidence of sound management practices, regardless of whether the art advances the museum's mission or addresses the needs of its audiences. One additional wrinkle. Relatively few museums choose to capitalize their collections, that is, to treat them as financial assets on their balance sheets. Museums are allowed to exclude collections from such reporting, but only under specific circumstances. Under FAS 116 museums that don't capitalize their collections must have policies in place requiring that proceeds from the sale of works be used only to acquire additional works--in other words, once you've decided to exclude the collections from financial reporting, they can't suddenly re-appear as a rainy-day fund in time of need.

To my mind there are many good reasons that museums shouldn't fund operations with deaccessions. The FAS accounting guidelines highlight one of them. Museum collections are intrinsically understood to be different in character than financial assets. They're created and built to achieve the defined mission of the institution, not as a hedge against hard times, where museums collect the most art at the lowest price as evidence of sound management practices, regardless of whether the art advances the museum's mission or addresses the needs of its audiences.

]]> By: On Museums… | View on Canadian Art http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-348 On Museums… | View on Canadian Art Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:19:02 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-348 [...] it HERE and former Whitney Museum curator David Ross’s response [...] [...] it HERE and former Whitney Museum curator David Ross’s response [...]

]]> By: Third Way Deaccessioning | new curator http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-345 Third Way Deaccessioning | new curator Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:25:56 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-345 [...] Richard Lacayo analyses the National Academy Museums plight in the same way, that survival of a museum should be paramount, Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes says [...] [...] Richard Lacayo analyses the National Academy Museums plight in the same way, that survival of a museum should be paramount, Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes says [...]

]]> By: Looking Around - TIME.com » Blog Archive David Ross on Hard Sell « http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-344 Looking Around - TIME.com » Blog Archive David Ross on Hard Sell « Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:32:45 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-344 [...] in New York and then the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, attached an interesting comment to my post from last week about museums selling off work from their permanent collections to stabilize their finances. Here's [...] [...] in New York and then the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, attached an interesting comment to my post from last week about museums selling off work from their permanent collections to stabilize their finances. Here's [...]

]]> By: planetlp http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-343 planetlp Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:28:36 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-343 The whole mode of operation of the museum seems counterproductive to me. While surfing the net I saw a Fascinating discovery has been made. While investigating an unknown painting signed Manet, researchers at the Laure & Lee Art Association discovered the presence of a long lost painting of Edouard Manet titled “La Toilette”. Scholars of Manet like Juliet Wilson Bareau and others have said that La Toilette has been over painted or destroyed and that only x-ray of Manet’s canvases would reveal it location. Here is a link of the YouTube HD video which shows the etching superimposed on top of the x-ray. To view the video in HD simply click on the HD link at the bottom right side of the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIX_bP-fSFg&feature=channel_page The whole mode of operation of the museum seems counterproductive to me. While surfing the net I saw a Fascinating discovery has been made. While investigating an unknown painting signed Manet, researchers at the Laure & Lee Art Association discovered the presence of a long lost painting of Edouard Manet titled “La Toilette”. Scholars of Manet like Juliet Wilson Bareau and others have said that La Toilette has been over painted or destroyed and that only x-ray of Manet's canvases would reveal it location. Here is a link of the YouTube HD video which shows the etching superimposed on top of the x-ray. To view the video in HD simply click on the HD link at the bottom right side of the video.

]]> By: davross http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/2008/12/30/hard-sell/comment-page-1/#comment-341 davross Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:55:33 +0000 http://lookingaround.blogs.time.com/?p=1206#comment-341 There is one more issue that no one seems to raise, regardless of which side of the issue is being argued. In my experience as an art museum director, the real deterrent should be simple humility -- the assumption that acquisitions made in earnest by previous directors and/or curators should remain intact since the collection is the most important record of institutional direction and also functions as a significant historical index. Beyond this, all who have worked in art museums know that each curatorial generation reflects changing aesthetic priorities, and that none of us have access to an overarching truth. I would often ask myself, "how can I simply say that the judgements of previous directors were wrong and are now simply disposable?" For it is this accretion of decisions that produce the aura that is a museum's reputation and constitutes such a large measure of its social value. Museums preserve not only objects, but the thinking that supports the decision that certain objects are worthy of perpetual conservation, study, and public display. Finding the funds to sustain an institution is a primary responsibility for all museum directors, but selling the collection for that purpose must remain fully off limits. There is one more issue that no one seems to raise, regardless of which side of the issue is being argued. In my experience as an art museum director, the real deterrent should be simple humility -- the assumption that acquisitions made in earnest by previous directors and/or curators should remain intact since the collection is the most important record of institutional direction and also functions as a significant historical index. Beyond this, all who have worked in art museums know that each curatorial generation reflects changing aesthetic priorities, and that none of us have access to an overarching truth. I would often ask myself, "how can I simply say that the judgements of previous directors were wrong and are now simply disposable?" For it is this accretion of decisions that produce the aura that is a museum's reputation and constitutes such a large measure of its social value. Museums preserve not only objects, but the thinking that supports the decision that certain objects are worthy of perpetual conservation, study, and public display.

Finding the funds to sustain an institution is a primary responsibility for all museum directors, but selling the collection for that purpose must remain fully off limits.

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