The Met Will Auction Prints and Photos to Make Up for Pandemic Losses
Including work from Picasso, Frank Stella, and a lot of Civil War photographs.
Due to closures, the art world was hit particularly hard during the pandemic. In a survey of 1000 museum directors, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) reported that in 2020 alone, three-quarters of them lost incomes of nearly 40% on average. As first reported by Artnet News, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced losses of $150m USD and will look to fill that deficit in a new auction of prints.
In conjunction with Christie’s, the event will take place over three sales and feature work that are all duplicates from the Met’s collection. The lot includes an extensive set of Civil War photographs, along with prints from Pablo Picasso, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and more.
The Met is one of many institutions that look to take advantage of a two-year period (ending in April 2020) granted by the Association of Art Museum Directors, which permits institutions to sell art to fund collection care. In total, the Met’s deaccessioning program is estimated to bring in around $1.4m USD. The first auction will take place on September 24, while the other two are scheduled for October 6 and November 4.
Also in the news, Gagosian will open a third Paris location.
