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

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ 
. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a 
one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the 
message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to 
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff 
Museum-L" (without the quotes).