Re: auctioning low-to-mid-value auction items, you may wish to contact 
regional auction houses outside of the Big Names & Big Northeastern 
Cities, as the decorator market for such items is still strong in the 
"provinces."  New Orleans, for example, has two local auction houses 
which do a strong business in decorator-quality items in addition to 
their high-end sales.  I would guess there are others in Atlanta, 
Chicago, Dallas - anywhere people are paying decorators to do up their 
houses. 

To answer the original question, we get approval from our Collections 
Committee, which is made up of Board members and several community 
(non-Board) members, to sell never-accessioned items, usually through 
public auction houses.  I believe they report the sale to the Board, but 
no Board vote is required.  In the event that no auction house wants it, 
we offer it to the committee that runs the silent auction for our annual 
gala fundraiser.  This is the sale venue of last resort, since it is 
technically public but you have to be invited to the auction preview or 
buy tickets to the museum gala to attend the auction.   Stuff that we 
can't sell at all has ended up filling space, decoratively, in a 
conference room and several rooms that we rent out for private 
functions.   A few things have gone to the education department for use 
in still life drawing.  

-- 
Jill R. Chancey, PhD
Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
PO Box 1108
Laurel, MS 39440
www.LRMA.org
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