At least the Hogarth isn’t going to auction.
On Monday, as reported by Colin Dabkowki in yesterday’s Buffalo News, the Albright-Knox Gallery finally got around to releasing the full list of 196 works that it plans to sell in seven sales, from March to June, at Sotheby’s, New York. The museum announced plans to sell on Nov. 10, saying the that the works on its list, not then identified to the public, fell outside its mission to collect modern and contemporary art.
The Hogarth isn’t listed in the Albright-Knox’s online Collections Highlights, but the list does include works by Courbet, Daumier, David and Delacroix that were purchased by the museum in earlier decades, when the mission must surely have included art of earlier centuries. None of those works are up for sale, but other important works are, including a late Hellenistic/early Roman Imperial “Bronze Figure of Artemis and the Stag,” estimated to bring $5-7 million.
Museums’ mushy missions are behind many lamentable disposals in recent years. In my recent Philly radio gig, I cited the Albright-Knox as an example of museums’ rationalizing disposals from their collection through “mission creep”—revising their former missions to “justify” dumping whole categories of works that they once proudly displayed.
Although the collection is perhaps best known for its modern and contemporary holdings, important representations from earlier periods, such as 19th century French and American painting, 18th century English paintings, and Asian art constitute very major segments of the Gallery’s collection. The acquisitions policy of the Gallery has long held that efforts to add certain works which elucidate affinities and parallels with the art of modern times is an important pursuit.
Meanwhile, “Buffalo Art Keepers,” a group of college professors, artists and other community members, led by local Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Dennis, last week announced a campaign to stop the sales.