Deaccession

Deaccession is the removal of an object from a museum collection. Disposal is what happens to it next: donation, transfer, exchange, sale, repatriation or destruction. The museum codes treat these as two separate steps and set conditions for both.

Published by ArtisDomus, written by Polina Surina.

The word belongs to institutions. Its rules come from codes of ethics, such as that of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), and from conditions of accreditation. They bind the museums and members that have signed up. A private owner who sells a picture is outside all of them.

In the United Kingdom, the Museums Association Code of Ethics for Museums (sixth edition, 2015) treats responsible disposal as part of a museum’s long-term collections development policy (para. 2.8). It starts with a curatorial review and is carried out openly.

Paragraph 2.9 goes further. Collections should not normally be treated as assets to trade for money. A museum should refuse a disposal made mainly for financial reasons, unless it will significantly improve the long-term public benefit of the remaining collection. Even then, the museum must show four things. The item lies outside the established core collection defined in the collections development policy. Sector bodies and the public were widely consulted in advance, and their views considered. The sale is not meant to raise short-term revenue, for example to cover a budget deficit. And it is a last resort, after other sources of funding have been thoroughly explored. Paragraph 2.10 rules out mortgaging collections or using them as security for a loan.

In the United States, the AAM Code of Ethics for Museums (adopted in 1993, amended in 2000) controls the money. Proceeds from selling nonliving collections must be used in line with the established standards of the museum’s discipline. In every case they may go only to acquisitions or the direct care of collections.

ICOM members agree to follow the ICOM Code when they join, and the code sets minimum standards. The Museums Association Code applies to governing bodies and to everyone who works for museums, paid or unpaid, and to consultants and freelances. It also covers people who work for or govern organisations that support, advise or provide services to museums. In the United Kingdom, the Accreditation Standard of November 2018 requires a collections development policy approved by the governing body, covering acquisitions and disposals (requirement 4.2). That policy must set out themes and priorities for rationalisation and disposal.

None of this applies to a private owner. A private collection has no governing body, no accreditation to lose, no public trust to breach and no rule about where the money goes. That is the gap between the two uses of the word. When a private owner calls a sale a deaccession, the word flatters what is simply a sale.

For the rules a private collection can set for itself, see acquisition policy. For the deadlines and routes after a death, see what happens when a collector dies.