Fall 2020 - Palm Springs Art Museum to Deaccession $2.5 M. Helen Frankenthaler at Sotheby’s

Yet another American museum has announced a move to deaccession a major work from its permanent collection after industry recommendations for selling art from institutional holdings were relaxed earlier this year.

The Palm Springs Art Museum in California will sell Helen Frankenthaler’s Carousel (1979) at Sotheby’s this fall. The house has yet to officially announce dates for its contemporary art evening sale, though a representative for Sotheby’s said that the work is expected to achieve a price between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

In a release, the museum said the decision to sell the Frankenthaler, a large canvas filled with overlaid red brushstrokes and color fields, comes after a recent review of its permanent collection this summer, which was conducted as a part of a years-long initiative to diversify and expand its holdings. Funds from the sale will be put in a restricted account, and will be used for both collection maintenance and future acquisitions, in keeping with newly relaxed guidelines from the Association of Art Museum Directors, a key industry group. The museum said future deaccessions will be made, but did not further detail its financial plans for the fund.

artmarketmonitor.com