Thursday, April 30, 2020

"This is how bad things are for museums: They now have a green light to sell off their art"

Sebastian Smee in the Washington Post.

It's a pretty levelheaded piece, as these things go, but it fails to grapple with the fact that (as his references to the MFA and the Baltimore Museum of Art show) museums have always had a green light to sell off their art. The AAMD's recent announcement did not provide a green light that wasn't there before. It only broadened the acceptable criteria for using the proceeds of sale.