It's mainly an ethical issue, since a museum's collections are considered to 

be held in trust for the benefit of society.  For example, Section 2.17 of the 

ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums:



http://icom.museum/ethics.html



states that:  "Museum collections are held in public trust and may not be 

treated as a realisable asset. Money or compensation received from the 

deaccessioning and disposal of objects and specimens from a museum collection 

should be used solely for the benefit of the collection and usually for 

acquisitions to that same collection."



This Wikipedia article also has has a good discussion of the issue, together 

with links to a variety of references:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collection_(museum)



-----Original Message-----

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf 

Of Julie Blood

Sent: Wednesday, 04 November, 2009 4:39 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Use of funds from deaccessioning



Hi everyone,



I'm looking for some information regarding the use of funds from the 

deaccessioning of objects in the permanent collection.  I remember attending a 

workshop last year that mentioned that the funds are restricted to acquisition 

of items for the collection and that funds not being used in that way could 

have repercussions towards the non-profit from the IRS.  Can anybody clarify 

this for me and direct me to a site that specifically has that information.  I 

was asked by one of our board members to research this information.  There 

seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding this topic, so any help would be 

appreciated.



Thanks,

Julie



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