Museums facing the prospect of winnowing collections (paintings, American, work)

[Cida]

(Not to mention all the good things that they can't leave on permanent display.)


Clean House to Survive? Museums Confront Their Crowded Basements
With storage spaces filled with works that may never be shown, some museums are rethinking the way they collect art, and at least one is ranking what it owns

Many American museums are bulging with stuff — so much stuff that some house thousands of objects that have never been displayed but are preserved, at considerable cost, in climate-controlled storage spaces. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: ashtrays, cocktail napkins, wine glasses. At the Indianapolis Art Museum: doilies, neckties and women’s underwear. In storage at the Brooklyn Museum: a roomful of home décor textiles, a full-size Rockefeller Center elevator and a trove of fake old master paintings the museum is barred from unloading.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...core-ios-share

[Brave New World]

Originally Posted by Cida

(Not to mention all the good things that they can't leave on permanent display.)


Clean House to Survive? Museums Confront Their Crowded Basements
With storage spaces filled with works that may never be shown, some museums are rethinking the way they collect art, and at least one is ranking what it owns

Many American museums are bulging with stuff — so much stuff that some house thousands of objects that have never been displayed but are preserved, at considerable cost, in climate-controlled storage spaces. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: ashtrays, cocktail napkins, wine glasses. At the Indianapolis Art Museum: doilies, neckties and women’s underwear. In storage at the Brooklyn Museum: a roomful of home décor textiles, a full-size Rockefeller Center elevator and a trove of fake old master paintings the museum is barred from unloading.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...core-ios-share

Some Museums have opened second museums or have allowed certain items to go on tours to other museums. Whilst some museum storage facilities are now either open to researchers or put on displays for the general public.

National Deposit Libraries have a similar roblem in terms of space, and have had to turn to ever bigger strage units.