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NY Times: Philadelphia History Museum selling artifacts to fund restoration
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
NY Times: Philadelphia History Museum selling artifacts to fund restoration
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| visitphilly.com |
It isn't every day Philadelphia happenings get mentioned in the New York Times — let alone the front page: but this story appears to have sneaked past every news outfit in Philly.
Yesterday, the Times reported that the Philadelphia History Museum has been in the process of âquietlyâ selling more than 2,000 of their items in order to raise money for the museum's $5.8 million renovation, as well as tighten their collection. The newsy hook is that in the museum world, pawning off your collection for some cash money is pretty much frowned upon (even in the recession and even if, like the History Museum, your nearly 200-year-old building needs a face lift).
If you haven't heard about the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent in a while, it's because it's been closed for almost two years now due to renovations. The remaining work will cost about $1.5 million, and the museum hopes to pay for it with the sale of a mystery artifact. (Other mysteries include why museum treasurer George J Kleiber initially told the Times that there were no records of the sales, then later âI'm sure there are records around. I'm not sure I've seen them.â)
The question being raised is whether selling off historical assets to fund renovations is ethical. It turns out to be tricky.
Kleiber told the Times that many of the artifacts they were selling didn't fit in with their âmission as a history museum.â Most notably, the museum sold an 1815 still life by the Philadelphia artist Raphaelle Peale-- a charming painting of a fish, an onion and a fennel bulb, among other things. Kleiber justified its sale by saying, âThe Peale we felt was very much outside the mission. We're a history museum, not an art museum. It's a picture of a fish.â
Not all agree. From the Times:
Others say the scope of the sales is troubling. âThe motivation appears to be liquidation, rather than preserving the embedded knowledge and experience that these artifacts bring,â said Kenneth Finkel, lecturer in American studies at Temple University who briefly served as deputy director of the museum. âDecisions made by donors and curators and libraries become the legacy. And the decision to deaccession stupidly is also a legacy.â
The only other news organization to weigh in so far is blog ArtNet, which had this to say:
âDespite the general rule against selling works from museum collections, it happens all the time, with the understanding that the institution's savvy curators have some grander vision in mind, finely tuned by their years of sophisticated experience in their field. Not so at the PHM, which seems to be run by a confederacy of dunces, with Kleiber as head fool.â
I'm inclined to wonder what's more important, selling a few items and re-opening the museum's doors, or keeping the entire collection intact only to be seen by those with keys to the museum. Just wondering.
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