Art for Sale: A Dereliction of Duty – interesting article about museums and the sale of their art. This week the Delaware Art Museum sold a wonderful piece by William Holman Hunt in London. I am sure that when their received the auction room’s estimate of £5-8M ($8.4-$13.4M) they felt here is an opportunity to cash in and, in turn, pay down their construction debt of $19.8M. Well, the painting was offered yesterday and only sold for £2.5M ($4.2M) — less than half of what was expected.
Now I do not have a problem with museums selling works of art that they never and will never show, that are sub-par (due to quality, condition, importance, etc.) or do not fit the scope of their collection. But selling an important Pre-Raphaelite painting that is part of an important Pre-Raphaelite collection seems downright stupid. In addition, it is rumored that two other works from the museum’s collection are going to be auctioned off — Winslow Homer’s Milking Time and Alexander Calder’s Black Crescent. Maybe after the “Hunt” disaster, they will rethink the sale of their other works.
William Holman Hunt’
“Isabella and the Pot of Basil”