Grachos on deaccessioning

In a commentary by Daniel Grant published today in the Wall Street Journal, Albright-Knox Art Gallery Director Louis Grachos talks about why the gallery decided to sell its items at auction in 2007 as opposed to making private deals with other museums and collectors. It's an interesting take on the decision that we haven't heard before:

In most cases, museums prefer going to auction. Whatever criticism these institutions receive for selling objects only increases if they don't do it that way. Take, for example, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., a museum devoted to contemporary art that sold 207 of its older artworks at Sotheby's, raising $67.2 million. There was some discussion at the board level of selling pieces directly to other museums or through art dealers, said Louis Grachos, the Albright-Knox's director, "but in the end, it just seemed like going the auction route was the safest and wisest choice."

Certainly wise in this case, but why safest? "We were under a microscope, and people were looking for any reason whatsoever to attack us," he said. "Going to public auction made all our actions transparent. No one could claim that we were pursuing back-room deals."

--Colin Dabkowski

Comments

[Michael]

$67.2 million was raised, and they can only keep it open 4 days per week?

[StandardStandard]

Charities aren't like you and me, Michael. That's why WNED could sell one of its valuable station licenses, move into huge new digs on the waterfront, and still come out every week complaining how poor they are and how Big Bird and Elmo are gonna die if you don't reach into Mommy's wallet and send Uncle Don all the green pieces of paper in there.

They use fancier words for it, like "endowment," but they may as well be speaking Klingon.

[actual gallery member]

The money raised at the auction was to bolster the acquisitions endowment, which is different from the operations fund.

The gallery's annual acquisitions budget has now increased substantially, so they can buy more and better works. It has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations budget, which is down because sponsorships, attendance, and events are all down.

[s. m. hutton]

My attendance at AKAG has been severely curtailed because it's such an annoyance to get out of the parking lot, especially after larger events. The last time I attended Gusto at the Gallery, paying admission to see a film, it took me over 45 minutes to exit the lot because of the new automated lot fee payment machine. At times the line stood still for several minutes while folks tried to find the correct currency to make payment, an employee came out to fix the malfunctioning machine, people figured out how to make payment with credit/debit cards, and so on. I have stayed away from subsequent events because of this, and my initial impulse to join the gallery (to do my part to support it financially) has fallen by the wayside for the same reason. I can't see joining and attending gallery functions when I feel held hostage by a machine. What's the point of an accession budget when going to (well, leaving) the gallery is so difficult?