Brooklyn Museum Selling Off Brooklyn's Past
The Atlantic has a fascinating article in its June issue about the Brooklyn Museum’s efforts to sell off a collection of important terra cotta decorative carvings salvaged by a donor from construction sites around Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1950s. Ivan Karp, an 83-year-old art dealer who spearheaded the salvage effort and later donated hundreds of…
The Atlantic has a fascinating article in its June issue about the Brooklyn Museum’s efforts to sell off a collection of important terra cotta decorative carvings salvaged by a donor from construction sites around Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1950s. Ivan Karp, an 83-year-old art dealer who spearheaded the salvage effort and later donated hundreds of pieces to the Brooklyn Museum, is now understandably distraught that the museum, which has left many of the pieces exposed to the elements for the past decade, is planning to sell a large part of the collection off through the Harlem salvage dealer Evan Blum of Demolition Depot. This despite a 2007 letter from Arnold Lehman to Karp assuring him that whatever pieces the museum did not use in its redesigned sculpture garden would be returned to Karp, who started a small museum in Charlottesville in 1985 to house these types of objects. Here’s the part of the story when the writer informs Karp of the “deaccessioning” plans:
When I told him that the Brooklyn Museum was planning to auction off so many ornaments through Blum, Karp was astonished. If they’re deaccessioning to sell, that’s very discomfiting, he exclaimed. They should have offered them to me first to buy! As it happened, Karp had phoned Blum, whom he’d known and liked for decades, just the day before. Blum had told him that he was consulting with the museum about the expansion of the sculpture garden, but he did not mention anything about auctions.
Shaking a little, Karp began to leaf through a copy of the binder the museum had sent Blum, which I had brought to the gallery. Good grief! he cried at the sight of a carved brownstone tenement plaque of Abraham Lincoln, which had once been a centerpiece in the sculpture garden. That’s one of the most valuable pieces they have! It’s an historic American figure—how many like that have ever been carved by an anonymous person in homage to Lincoln? This is heartbreaking. A moment later, after peering at a majestic red terra-cotta boy, he said, They’re making serious blunders in many cases.
As he inspected the images, Karp shrank into his chair, until at last, looking very old and defeated, he announced he simply couldn’t look anymore.
Sad.
Update: After the jump, check out the letter to the editor of the Atlantic that was just sent by the Brooklyn Museum.
Ghosts of New York [The Atlantic]
Re: John Freeman Gill article in The Atlantic Monthly on the Brooklyn Museum Collection of Architectural Fragments
The Brooklyn Museum regrets that the author’s comments do not reflect the substantive content of his hours of conversation with Museum staff, or of the extensive and detailed information subsequently provided in response to his questions. The Brooklyn Museum always investigates a range of possibilities for public disposition of works that have entered the deaccession process (the first step in releasing objects from a Museum’s collection), but currently has no agreement with any sales venue regarding the sale of recently deaccessioned architectural fragments. The Museum looks forward to continuing our plans for the full installation of the architectural sculpture collection, in consultation with specialists in the field who in recent years have contributed to the first qualitative assessment of these holdings.
Arnold L. Lehman, Director Brooklyn Museum
Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum
Arnold Lehman is a putz. I used to go to the Brooklyn Museum several times a year to see shows that Manhattan institutions were too timid to exhibit. I think I have been to BMA twice since Lehman took over. And during that time, much of the senior staff has gone elsewhere.
what did we expect when we let them sell the costume collection.
an argument could be nmade that brooklyn’s greatest flaw is brooklyn’s inability to coalesce around issues that matter.
the poorer people don’t think on these terms. and the wealthy are pretty much transient.
sad. boo.
Benson this is not a win win. The artifacts get good homes-in private collections.The viewing public loses. While these pieces are of interest to Brooklynites, do these kind of artifacts really fetch high enough prices on the open market to justify this loss?
ty, I understand that, but he still might be able to prevail in litigation. Depends on what promises and representations were made at the time of the original donation, any made subsequently, and the exact wording of the 2007 letter. Were I representing Karp, I would immediately move for a Temporary Restraining Order to block the sale (and I’d say there’s a very good chance he’d prevail pending the outcome of the litigation), and then get ahold of all the documents and take relevant testimony from the people involved during discovery. No such thing as a simple open and closed case. (I’m not a lawyer, but I play one on TV.)
The standard of ethics for museums has always been too sell artwork only to acquire other artwork. For example; you only sell a handful of lesser-quality impressionist paintings to buy a masterpiece. It’s clear that the museum won’t be acquiring any more of these architectural fragments with the money this generates, so what will they do with it? The Brooklyn Museum, especially under Lehman, has made some very poor choices in the last decade, so they can’t be trusted to “do the right thing.”
Selling-off Brooklyn (and NYC’s) architectural heritage? This is exactly what the museum should be preserving, and holding on to tightly!
Also, if Ivan Karp can show that he has a deed-of-gift or other contract in writing from the original donation, spelling-out what should be done with the works, then he should pursue their return to him. They’d be better-off with him than sitting on the grass in the rain like they’ve ben “stored” at the museum.
An Evan Blum? The most despicable of all salvage dealers? The museum could have easily found some other high-end dealer who could properly handle this if they wanted to sell. Every aspect of this stinks, and makes the museum look like it’s run by amateurs.
Ivan Karp of OK Harris fame is a legend. I bet he has donated plenty to the BK Museum over the years.
CGar and DIBS — Mr. B mis-paraphrased the letter and the “promise.”
As I said in my 9:51 post:
By the way, the Museum director didn’t promise anything.
“We would be willing to consider the opportunity to return any of the objects that are not among this chosen group,†Lehman wrote.
Greenwoodgeneral — I think you are conflating two different organizations with two different purposes.
Brooklyn Museum Mission Statement:
“The mission of the Brooklyn Museum is to act as a bridge between the rich artistic heritage of world cultures, as embodied in its collections, and the unique experience of each visitor. Dedicated to the primacy of the visitor experience, committed to excellence in every aspect of its collections and programs, and drawing on both new and traditional tools of communication, interpretation, and presentation, the Museum aims to serve its diverse public as a dynamic, innovative, and welcoming center for learning through the visual arts.”
Brooklyn Historical Society Mission:
“The Brooklyn Historical Society connects the past to the present and makes the vibrant history of Brooklyn tangible, relevant and meaningful for today’s diverse communities, and for generations to come.”
benson, see CGar’s 9:57 post, that’s what the issue is.