Tom Freudenheim, the Smithsonian Institution’s former assistant secretary for museums, responds to comments (at the end of this post) about three works by Eakins to be sold at Christie’s on May 20 by the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington (which is part of the Smithsonian):
The Hirshhorn Museum has disposed of stuff regularly for years. But
Joe Hirshhorn‘s gift specifically allowed for that—proceeds to
buy new art. So theoretically, there’s an excuse not to transfer the
works to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.I always felt that this gradual
erosion of Joe’s collection simply neutered it, and made it gradually
like every other modern art museum, without the special character it
had as Joe’s collection. He used to buy up a whole show of works,
indiscriminately sucking up stuff. But that meant it was a really
interesting, if uneven, collection.Soon it will like every other
collection—one of this, one of that. At least SAAM still has an
idiosyncratic collection, because there’s all this American stuff that
makes for a fuller history of American art.