Continuing our ongoing tracking of the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on museums and arts organizations, I penned a column in Apollo magazine today. You can read the full article here (subscription required for more than three articles), the first paragraph is reprinted here as a teaser:
One key question for museums boards, management, and their supporters to ask right now is this: what do they actually want to accomplish when the Covid-19 crisis subsides and the lockdowns end? Is a museum its collection, its location, its staff or its visitors? Until recently we had the comparative luxury of asking these questions one museum crisis at a time. Should a small museum (for example, the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts) survive at all costs without the collection that created its very importance? Should it seek a better home for its collection but perhaps lose some of its unique character or even its individual existence (see the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s merger with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.)? Or should it evolve in a way that is perhaps contrary to its founders’ specific desires (the Barnes Foundation’s move to Philadelphia from the truly sui generis yet remote home in Lower Merion created by Dr Barnes)?
Now, with [read more here]
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Topics:
National Academy Museum,
National Gallery of Art,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
ICOM,
American Alliance of Museums,
Philadelphia,
AAM,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
International Council of Museums,
Corcoran Gallery of Art,
AAMD,
Barnes Foundation,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Apollo Magazine,
UPMIFA,
endowment,
Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds
(Boston, MA, February 26, 2018) Sullivan & Worcester LLP clients and Berkshire Museum members James Hatt, Kristin Hatt, and Elizabeth Weinberg filed today a brief with the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts asking the state’s highest court not to permit the sale of 40 works of art by the Berkshire Museum. The Berkshire Museum filed a petition on February 9, 2018 asking the SJC to permit deviation from the historical restrictions that would prevent such sale. Today the museum member filed a brief as amicus curiae, or “friend of the court.”
Partner Nicholas M. O’Donnell, attorney for the members, said, “My clients are optimistic that the SJC will see through the Berkshire Museum’s petition to deviate from its historical restrictions as unnecessary, and harmful. Such a petition must show that the current state of affairs is impossible or impracticable, and that the requested change is ‘as near as possible’ to the original purpose of the institution. This petition fails to meet either criterion.”
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Topics:
Deaccessioning,
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop
(Boston, MA, January 16, 2018) Sullivan & Worcester LLP has filed its papers in the appeal by its clients, the members of the Berkshire Museum who sued to enjoin the museum’s sale of 40 works of art and sculpture. The appeal was brought as a result of the Berkshire County Superior Court’s November 7, 2017 denial of their request for an injunction, and dismissal of the case. That order denied not only the members’ request, but also a motion by another group that includes Norman Rockwell’s sons and the motion by Attorney General Maura Healey to pause the sale originally scheduled for November 13, 2017 at Sotheby’s in New York—a sale that would have included Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop and other masterpieces.
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Topics:
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Sotheby's,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Zenas Crane,
Hudson River School,
Frederic Edwin Church,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop,
Maura Healey,
Massachusetts Appeals Court
Attorney General’s Motion, Supported by Private Plaintiffs, is Allowed on the Eve of Auction
The Massachusetts Appeals Court has stopped the imminent auction of paintings owned by the Berkshire Museum. Late Friday, a single justice of the Appeals Court issued the following order:
ORDER: After reviewing the parties' submissions, the request for a preliminary injunction prohibiting the defendant, Trustees of the Berkshire Museum from selling, auctioning, or otherwise disposing of any of the artworks that have been listed for auction commencing on November 13, 2017, is allowed. The balance of the risk of irreparable harm to the petitioner and the respondent in light of each party's chance of success on the merits weighs in favor of the petitioner.
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Topics:
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Attorney General,
Maura Healey
Forty Masterpieces of American and European Art Scheduled for Auction
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Topics:
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Sotheby's,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Zenas Crane,
Trustees of the Berkshire Museum,
Hudson River School,
Frederic Edwin Church,
Pieter de Hooch,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop,
Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop
Two wonderful museums recently announced plans to sell major works of art. In one case, some 40 paintings, American masterpieces among them, will be sold at auction. In another, more than 400 photographs will also be sold. The former case has prompted a nationwide outcry, the latter…effectively nothing. The differences and similarities between the two underscore the aspirational rules that govern what is known as “deaccessioning,” but also remind us that principles and the goals they are meant to reach are not always the same thing.
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Topics:
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Delaware Museum of Art,
American Alliance of Museums,
Lee Rosenbaum,
MoMA,
Deaccessioning,
AAM,
Norman Rockwell,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Alexander Calder,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
AAMD,
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Pittsfield,
General Electric,
Waconah Park,
Berkshire Museum,
Housatonic,
Lake Onota,
Frederic Church,
Albert Bierstadt,
Zenas Crane,
Williamstown,
Lenox,
North Adams,
Mass MoCA,
Felix Salmon
