Christopher Knight Defends the Selling of Art to Aid Museums

Recently much has been made of the selling of museum’s collections to help pay the bills, from the trouble at the Rose Art Museum, to the potential selling of dinosaurs, to the controversy surrounding Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art‘s flirtation with the idea. In short, it’s never something that goes down easily with the general public and museum boards. But now LA Times art critic, Christopher Knight, has stepped in with his sort of “In Defense of Art Sales” treatise, saying there are indeed correct ways of doing it so the museum winds up better off and everyone can still be friends at the end, largely citing how the LA County Museum of Art has conducted its selling affairs over the years. Well worth the read if you’re interested the topic after all this recent news and/or you get fired up every time you read another story of a potential sale. Also, worth reading the Telegraph‘s “Museums Lose Nearly 200 Artifacts” as a companion piece, to see another, bizarre alternative.

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