Last year was an interesting one in the Netherlands as far as disposal goes. The Centraal Museum in Utrecht de-accessioned almost 1,500 objects from its collection. Half of them went to other museums, the rest were auctioned for a total of 175,000 euros.
The Frans Hals Museum offered two paintings for sale and sold a Benjamin West painting to a buyer in the US for 1m euros, and the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague received 3.3m euros for a painting by Ilya Mashkov, which was auctioned by Sotheby's in London.
The money raised from these sales was added to the acquisition budget of the museums in line with the Code of Ethics and the Guidelines for the Disposal of Museum Objects, both reissued in 2006 by the Dutch museums association and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (NICH) respectively.
In all three cases the selected objects were redundant and did not function in the museum collections. In Utrecht, most of the objects came from the collection of a small museum of international contemporary art that had merged with the Centraal Museum some years before.
The sale was the first part of a long-term disposal strategy. Before the museum started sorting through its collection, its plan was ratified by the city council to make sure that the museum would be in control. One of the policy statements in the collection plan says that all proceeds from sales of objects from the collection will be added to the acquisition budget.
In Haarlem when the Frans Hals Museum asked for a budget to build new storage facilities - necessary to keep its registered status - the city suggested that the museum should see if it could find a solution in the collection. One of the paintings that director Karel Schampers came up with was a huge allegory by Benjamin West. The painting was donated to the museum in 1940 but had never been on show.
A slight hiccup in the operation occurred when the heirs of the donor were tracked down by a journalist and claimed the painting. The relevant documents could not be found so the museum and the heirs agreed to split the profit from the sale. And the city decided to pay for new storage facilities, so the money could then be added to the acquisition and restoration budget.
The Gemeentemuseum of the Hague never fully realised what it had in storage until the Ilya Mashkov painting was selected along with 100 others that were considered redundant. The painting had not been on show since it was donated in 1935 and none of the Dutch museums that were offered the painting were interested.
Sotheby's first assessed the value at 1,200 euros but decided it would be better to auction it in London instead of Amsterdam. This turned out to be a good idea, as Russian collectors competing for the painting led to the price soaring to an unexpected 3.3m euro.
Towards the end of last year the revised Guidelines for the Disposal of Museum Objects was published after a long round of consultations and discussions. Many alterations resulted from the experiences of museums working with the first edition of the guidelines.
But not all issues and questions that were raised could be solved, such as trading up, selling to other museums and the spending limitations on the proceeds. But what is clear is that the museum world and the public accept that museum objects can be sold when museums follow the procedures laid out in the guidelines.
That means thorough research, a sound collection policy and a real and demonstrable effort to keep the object in the public domain. So, the object has to be offered to other museums, but not necessarily for free.
Some museums such as the Centraal Museum and the Gemeentemuseum are happy to pass the objects on to other museums, as long as they are rid of them. But the Frans Hals Museum asked a market price. That caused no real problem in the case of the Benjamin West, since no Dutch museum was interested.
But the other painting it is trying to sell, by the 17th-century master Michael Sweerts, is a highly valued and rare work of art. Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum would gladly add it to its collection, but refuses to pay the 5m to 6m euros that the Frans Hals Museum is asking.
And the Frans Hals Museum is not the only one in the Netherlands that wants to see a fair payment when it transfers a redundant but valuable object to another museum.
The NICH is currently running a project called Safe Selling in which works from its own collection together with objects from seven or eight other museums of all types, are being taken through the disposal process. The objects left over after they have been offered to other museums will be auctioned on the internet and in the auction room.
The institute is working with the Bankgiroloterij, a lottery that supports museums and heritage, to create a television show around the auction, to be aired in the autumn this year. Several of the participating museums have stated that they want to sell for a fair price to a museum or for a commercial price on the market.
It is inevitable that the museum world will have to come to an agreement on this issue and it is unthinkable that selling between museums will be totally ruled out.
Arjen Kok is a consultant in collections policy and value assessment
www.icn.nl
The Frans Hals Museum offered two paintings for sale and sold a Benjamin West painting to a buyer in the US for 1m euros, and the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague received 3.3m euros for a painting by Ilya Mashkov, which was auctioned by Sotheby's in London.
The money raised from these sales was added to the acquisition budget of the museums in line with the Code of Ethics and the Guidelines for the Disposal of Museum Objects, both reissued in 2006 by the Dutch museums association and the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (NICH) respectively.
In all three cases the selected objects were redundant and did not function in the museum collections. In Utrecht, most of the objects came from the collection of a small museum of international contemporary art that had merged with the Centraal Museum some years before.
The sale was the first part of a long-term disposal strategy. Before the museum started sorting through its collection, its plan was ratified by the city council to make sure that the museum would be in control. One of the policy statements in the collection plan says that all proceeds from sales of objects from the collection will be added to the acquisition budget.
In Haarlem when the Frans Hals Museum asked for a budget to build new storage facilities - necessary to keep its registered status - the city suggested that the museum should see if it could find a solution in the collection. One of the paintings that director Karel Schampers came up with was a huge allegory by Benjamin West. The painting was donated to the museum in 1940 but had never been on show.
A slight hiccup in the operation occurred when the heirs of the donor were tracked down by a journalist and claimed the painting. The relevant documents could not be found so the museum and the heirs agreed to split the profit from the sale. And the city decided to pay for new storage facilities, so the money could then be added to the acquisition and restoration budget.
The Gemeentemuseum of the Hague never fully realised what it had in storage until the Ilya Mashkov painting was selected along with 100 others that were considered redundant. The painting had not been on show since it was donated in 1935 and none of the Dutch museums that were offered the painting were interested.
Sotheby's first assessed the value at 1,200 euros but decided it would be better to auction it in London instead of Amsterdam. This turned out to be a good idea, as Russian collectors competing for the painting led to the price soaring to an unexpected 3.3m euro.
Towards the end of last year the revised Guidelines for the Disposal of Museum Objects was published after a long round of consultations and discussions. Many alterations resulted from the experiences of museums working with the first edition of the guidelines.
But not all issues and questions that were raised could be solved, such as trading up, selling to other museums and the spending limitations on the proceeds. But what is clear is that the museum world and the public accept that museum objects can be sold when museums follow the procedures laid out in the guidelines.
That means thorough research, a sound collection policy and a real and demonstrable effort to keep the object in the public domain. So, the object has to be offered to other museums, but not necessarily for free.
Some museums such as the Centraal Museum and the Gemeentemuseum are happy to pass the objects on to other museums, as long as they are rid of them. But the Frans Hals Museum asked a market price. That caused no real problem in the case of the Benjamin West, since no Dutch museum was interested.
But the other painting it is trying to sell, by the 17th-century master Michael Sweerts, is a highly valued and rare work of art. Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum would gladly add it to its collection, but refuses to pay the 5m to 6m euros that the Frans Hals Museum is asking.
And the Frans Hals Museum is not the only one in the Netherlands that wants to see a fair payment when it transfers a redundant but valuable object to another museum.
The NICH is currently running a project called Safe Selling in which works from its own collection together with objects from seven or eight other museums of all types, are being taken through the disposal process. The objects left over after they have been offered to other museums will be auctioned on the internet and in the auction room.
The institute is working with the Bankgiroloterij, a lottery that supports museums and heritage, to create a television show around the auction, to be aired in the autumn this year. Several of the participating museums have stated that they want to sell for a fair price to a museum or for a commercial price on the market.
It is inevitable that the museum world will have to come to an agreement on this issue and it is unthinkable that selling between museums will be totally ruled out.
Arjen Kok is a consultant in collections policy and value assessment
www.icn.nl
