Albright-Knox BlogBacks: Freudenheim and a Buffalo Art Keeper

The beaten but unbowed Tom Freudenheim and Katka Hammond, one of the Buffalo Art Keepers (now more appropriately called the Buffalo Art Losers), respond separately to Albright-Knox Post Mortem: A Complete Defeat.
Freudenheim writes:
It’s not that I don’t agree with you [that the outcome of the anti-deaccession campaign was, regrettably, a “complete defeat”]. It’s just that I still retain a tiny bit of my youthful naiveté to believe that this could be the beginning of a revolution. I don’t know another example in which local people have publicly pleaded with their museum not to sell treasures they love. But of course, cynicism will likely prevail.
Hammond writes:
I am one of the small band of Buffalo folks who gathered what steam we could in late January (much too late, I’m afraid) to oppose the Albright-Knox’s selling off its antiquity masterpieces. We tried to stop the Gallery from gambling the house so to speak, in order to acquire new contemporary works. I’ve read your comments on this subject with interest, because I completely agree that exploiting past acquisitions is wrongheaded, short-sighted, and an arrogant view of the institution’s relation to the primary community it is supposed to serve.
None of us “Art Keepers” had any experience in organizing an opposition of this sort, and we came up against organization and power that we were unfortunately unable to overcome. The Gallery used its institutional resources to mail out proxies (for their side only), got employees to man a phone bank calling members to get them to vote in favor of the deaccession, and used the local media to convince the public that this deaccessioning was the only way to go.
I am extremely sad that these pieces have not only left the Albright, but that they will most likely end up in private hands.