New York State Assembly Chamber
When it comes to the Brodsky Bill to regulate museum deaccessions in New York State, it appears, alas, that the museum lobby has gotten its way.
Robin Pogrebin writes this for tomorrow’s NY Times (online now):
A bill to prohibit cultural institutions from selling pieces from their
collections to cover operating costs has all but died in the New York
State Legislature, in the face of opposition from major cultural
institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the withdrawal of support from the bill’s Senate sponsor….Some [actually, most] museums are already precluded from such sales by the State Board of
Regents, but the bill would have made the practice illegal and expanded
the prohibition to all museums.
Pogrebin mentions that museums chartered by the State Legislature, rather than the Board of Regents, are not subject to the existing Regents regulations governing deaccessions. But she never specifies which institutions those are: It’s not “New York’s largest museums,” as her article suggests. It’s the most venerable cultural nonprofits—those that were chartered before 1890, including the huge Metropolitan Museum and the small, deaccession-compromised National Academy.
But wait a minute! Who’s that familiar-looking lady gazing down perplexedly at a piece of electronic equipment (probably a
glitchy mini-camcorder), seated next to the microphone-wielding Michael Botwinick, on the right side of the photo accompanying the online version of Pogrebin’s article?
Why that’s CultureGrrl herself, making a stealth appearance in a piece by the reporter whose articles on the Brooklyn Museum I had criticized earlier today. Botwinick, as it happens, is a former director of the very same Brooklyn Museum (and now directs the Hudson River Museum).
I was on the scene that day to report on a State Assembly Committee’s Jan. 14 Deaccession Roundtable, where Botwinick spoke in favor of the Brodsky Bill (while starring in a CultureGrrl Video).
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, who opposed the Brodsky Bill (and also figures in a CultureGrrl Video recorded at the same Jan. 14 event), won the gratitude of the museum lobby by achieving passage of a bill that he sponsored (co-sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky) that would allow financially challenged nonprofits leeway in withdrawing funds from “underwater” endowments—those that are valued at less than their original amounts at the time the money was given. (More about this bill in an article by Erica Orden of the Wall Street Journal.) That potentially perilous but needed legislation passed both houses unanimously but, to my knowledge (still checking), has not yet received the Governor’s expected approval.
UPDATE: This just in from Adam Brickman, Bing’s deputy chief of staff:
As of this morning, the UPMIFA Legislation [as the “underwater” bill is known] (A. 7907-D) is still waiting
to be sent to the Governor’s office.
In response to my query, Brodsky tonight sent me his comments on the fate of his deaccession bill and his plans for regulating disposals from museum collections if he succeeds in his current bid to become New York’s next Attorney General:
Nothing is dead forever, but the opposition of some of the large
cultural institutions that are chartered by the Legislature has made it
unlikely that the bill will move this year. The Regents’ regulations [my link, not his], warts and all, will provide significant protections for 98% of cultural
institutions.As
AG, I will maintain my positions on deaccessioning for operational
expenses and will have additional supervisory authority over not-for-profits and
charities, which will be carefully used to assure conformance with the
law.
We haven’t had a strong deaccession watchdog in the New York AG’s office since G. Oliver Koppell (and, before him, Louis Lefkowitz).
But what we all really want to know is: Will CultureGrrl‘s photo appear in the hardcopy version of tomorrow’s NY Times?
UPDATE: It’s there (but only in black and white)!