The Art Newspaper reported that an anonymous group of donors offered the Berkshire Museum $1,000,000 with the stipulation the museum takes its art off the auction block for at least a year and try to come up with some other way of fixing its serious financial situation. According to the museum, they have been running at a deficit of about $1.2M for the past decade. Sadly, the museum’s board declined the offer.
There are times where I can see the rational of selling off minor works from a museum collection … especially if those works are never exhibited (in other words, just taking up space). However, it is hard for me to believe that a smaller museum like this one can consider some of the works ‘minor examples’ … especially the two Norman Rockwell paintings.
The sale is set for the fall of 2017 … so there isn’t much time to try an correct this.
Source: Berkshire Museum board turns down $1m to pause art sale
Source: Protester to Berkshire Museum: Art is ‘Not For Sale’