I have a dilemma regarding  the disposal of deaccessioned forgeries from a
museum collection.  Suppose I have a signed painting that I am certain is a
forgery. Several experts have agreed, and the painting is even made of a
material invented twenty years after the artist's death.   I'd like to
dispose of it and am aware that an auction house catering to the decorator
market can easily dispose of it as a "In the style of..." picture.  However,
I don't want it to slip back onto the market as the genuine article,
particularly with our museum's name in its provenance.  I have a notion that
perhaps we could get our conservator to take the signature off of the
picture entirely.  I realize that conservators are not supposed to make
major changes to pictures, and I'm not even sure if he'd do it, but it seems
to me like it would be ethically supportable to remove a forged signature.
I don't feel like any amount of paperwork or documentation can prevent an
unscrupulous dealer from re-selling the picture - with its *signature*,
after all - as the 'real thing.'   I don't want our name associated with the
picture should this happen to it.  But I do want the dang thing out of my
vault and would furthermore love to have the few thousand dollars it could
fetch on the decorator market to add to my acquisitions fund.

What to do?  What would conservator, auction-house, and curatorial ethical
standards have to say on this matter?  How have other museums handled this
dilemma?

Jill R. Chancey, Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
Laurel, MS
(phone) 601-649-6374
(fax) 601-649-6379

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