Viewing page 111 of 181

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-62-

[[underlined]] Report on Museum Deaccessioning During Fiscal Year 1985 [[/underlined]]

Mr. Adams noted that in January 1985, when he first reported that several art museums had been studying the possibility of deaccessioning items in their collections which are not germane to their collecting policies, the Regents indicated their interest in receiving annual reports with regard to progress in this area. In a house-keeping sense, some deaccessioning actions were taken to correct and update registrarial records in conformance with regular inventory maintenance. In addition, there were reevaluations of collection items which resulted in "demotion" to study collection status, transfer to other Smithsonian museums, donations to other museums or public institutions, sale, and destruction due to deterioration. All items deaccessioned were under $50,000 in value and as such did not require direct approval of the Board of Regents before actual disposal.

During fiscal year 1985 Smithsonian museums deaccessioned more than 40,000 items.

At the Museum of African Art 401 objects were transferred to other Smithsonian organizations or to other museums, galleries and conservation laboratories for study. Objects deaccessioned included African brasses and musical instruments and Bamana antelope headdresses from Mali.

Of 2,749 items deaccessioned by the Cooper-Hewitt all but a few items were culled from the Picture Library and given to New York public schools. Other actions included a donation of duplicate posters to the Victoria and Albert Museum and disposal of three objects which had been damaged beyond repair.