Museum deaccessioning

Campaigners are calling on the government to create an independent trust to prevent Southampton City Council selling off artworks from its public collection.

High Court judge to decide if 10,000-piece holding must be sold off

GLASS collector Graham Cooley, auctioneer Will Farmer and glass specialist Andy McConnell have offered to spearhead a fundraising drive for a new home for the Broadfield House Glass Museum collection.

AN outcry from interest groups has bought more time to save the Broadfield House Glass Museum at Stourbridge, which was earmarked for closure by Dudley council.

A MAJOR policy shift by the Museums Association means British museums will now consider selling at auction as a way to safeguard core collections for the future.

THE Gilbert Collection is to move from Somerset House on London’s Embankment to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington next year.

In the UK there is a tendency to think of institutions as the natural permanent home for the best cultural artefacts. But American museums’ policy of deaccessioning means there can be second chances to buy stellar objects.

WHEN Poole Pottery went into administration last June, it could have been a sad day for one of Britain’s best-known producers of table, giftwares and art pottery. But the Dorset pottery has risen phoenix-like under new ownership and is once again producing ceramics as well as launching four new giftware ranges.

If antique glass was the focal point of the celebrated Harvey’s Wine Museum collection, sold in three parts by Bonhams in the last month, then the first purchase for the fledgling museum in the mid 1950s had been the Pratt collection of silver wine labels.

The sale of pottery and porcelain from the Minton Museum Collection took place at Bonhams Bond Street on July 23. The 379 lots realised £714,025 net against an estimate of £400,000.

THE British Museum is being advised to sell off up to a fifth of its ‘spare’ exhibits to raise funds. The museum is already being forced to sell off valuable property and shed up to 180 jobs – including vital conservation posts – to stave off bankruptcy a year before its 250th anniversary.

Bonhams are to sell the impressive collection of Minton ceramics from the Minton Museum, Stoke-on-Trent in their New Bond Street rooms this year. The collection will be dispersed in two instalments, with the first 400-lot dispersal scheduled for April 30.

GERMANY: SOME of the most unusual and fascinating military vehicles ever built are to be auctioned on May 15 when the contents of the Historical and Technical Museum of Nümbrecht are sold off.

A family-owned glassworks and museum has closed and is selling its stock from the venue this month.