From the Arizona Daily Sun
MNA art sale called unethical
By GARY GHIOTO
Sun Staff Reporter
06/22/2003
Instead of selling artifacts from its extensive
collection to fund payroll and other
operating costs last year, the Museum of Northern Arizona
should have closed its
doors and reorganized its finances, says American
Association of Museums policy.
If that failed, the museum, founded in 1928 by the
legendary explorer Harold Sellers
Colton and artist Mary-Russel Ferrel Colton, should have
gone out of business and
transferred its collection to another museum, said the
international accreditation
association.
Speaking generally and not referring directly to MNA,
Edward H. Able, president
and CEO of AAM, said it's unethical for trustees to sell
collections to fund operating
expenses because the items are kept in "public trust."
"More than 80 percent of museum objects are donated. Those
objects are donated to
museums with the intent that they become part of the public
domain," Able said.
"That's the intent of the donor. Also, collections are at
the heart of our mission; we're
about the business
of object-based learning. They are not disposable assets,"
Able said.
He said items can be sold only to help upgrade or purchase
new items for a
collection. But the sale should be at public auction
through a major auction house --
guidelines MNA failed to follow.
Acting Museum Director Robert Baughman said he was
"disappointed" by Able's
remarks and added they don't reflect the "reality" trustees
of financially beleaguered,
nonprofit museums such as MNA face every day to survive.
"What the policy didn't take into account, what most museum
(accreditation) policies
don't take into account is that if there is a reasonable
chance you're going to have to
close the doors in three weeks, then you do what you have
to do. That's what we
were faced with," Baughman said.
INSUFFICIENT CONTRIBUTIONS
The challenge is to never get to that point, but the Museum
of Northern Arizona did
just that by relying on annual gifts and contributions
instead of making programs
self-sustaining and supplementing them with endowment
income.
In the 1990s, then-MNA Director Michael Fox increased
spending for his programs
but offset those costs by vigorous and successful
fund-raising. In 1999, Fox's last full
year as director, the museum raised $2.3 million in
contributions, nearly two-thirds of
its total expenses.
But when Fox left in 2000, then director Arthur H. Wolf
couldn't keep pace with his
predecessor's fund-raising record even as expenses
increased (see chart). Under
pressure from the board of trustees, Wolf resigned in March
2002, leaving a museum
with no credit line and three weeks of funds to cover
payroll and expenses.
But instead of closing or declaring a financial emergency
and appealing to thousands
of MNA members, including some who are very wealthy, the
trustees kept the
museum's precarious situation under wraps.
Then, according to American Association of Museums (AAM)
guidelines, the trustees
engaged in "unethical and inappropriate behavior" by
selling 21 western art and
Navajo weavings to raise nearly $1 million for operating
costs.
While permitting the sale of museum pieces to restore or
secure new artifacts for
collections, association and MNA guidelines forbid sales to
fund operation costs.
SECRETIVE AND MISLEADING
Besides not telling MNA's 3,200 members what they were
doing until after the sale,
the secretive trustees failed to follow basic ethical
guidelines most museums follow
when selling pieces of their collections.
Some MNA members also are complaining that they were misled
by some trustees,
who told them that all 21 pieces of the collection were
going to one person, who
would eventually pass them on to a university.
The Daily Sun has learned that pieces of MNA's collection
have been sold by a
California art gallery to numerous collectors, and one
Navajo textile is at a Chicago
museum.
For the first time in the museum's history, trustees
suspended the museum's collections
policy after deciding a one-time sale would not affect
accreditation. In March 2002,
trustees ordered MNA deputy director Edwin L. Wade and
staff to select items from
the collection for sale.
They chose 12 pieces of western fine art, including works
by illustrator Maynard
Dixon and printmaker Gustav Bauman. Nine ceremonial Navajo
weavings, some
more than a century old, plus unique Navajo sandpainting
textiles by Hosteen Klah,
also were selected.
Trustees ignored an AAM guideline to sell the artifacts at
public auction with an
established firm like Sotheby's or offer the art and
weavings to other museums. They
said the museum's financial crisis didn't give them time to
wait the weeks, perhaps
months before that could happen.
Instead, trustees instructed Wade, an internationally known
Southwest art expert, to
put the word out about the sale among collectors and art
brokers.
Within weeks of the initial financial meltdown alarm,
trustees considered bids from
three Southwest brokers. But that move ran afoul of another
AAM guideline that
strongly advises museums to avoid any appearance of a
conflict of interest when
collection items are sold, or "deaccessioned."
Steve Diamant, a former advertising executive who collects
and sells Southwest
artifacts in Santa Fe, N.M., produced the winning bid of
$947,115.
BROKER WELL-KNOWN AT MNA
Diamant is well-known among MNA members and its 60-person
staff, especially
Wade. Diamant married Wade's secretary and has sold
antiquities to the MNA
deputy director in the past. According to F. Denise Colton,
the granddaughter of the
museum's founders, Wade recommended Diamant when she was
seeking assistance
in the sale of a family painting.
Wade said in an interview that it's no secret he's bought
objects from Diamant, but
that does not constitute a conflict of interest regarding
the MNA sale. His contract
with the museum allows him to be a collector, he noted.
"I can collect art as long as I notify the museum's
director, as I have over the years,"
said Wade, adding, "So it's totally in keeping with the
bylaws of the museum."
Because he's used by international auction houses such as
Sotheby's as an expert,
Wade said he knows just about "every art dealer in the
world," and that includes
Diamant and the other two brokers involved in the MNA sale.
"I didn't broker the deal. It was the board who then
decided on who would be paid,
who would then deal with this and he was one of many
people. But I knew all the
other ones even more intimately," he said.
MNA director Bob Baughman agreed. He said the board of
trustees was solely
responsible for the selection of Diamant to receive the
collection items.
But Able of the American Association of Museums, again not
referring directly to
MNA or the sale, said the deaccession of museum items must
be "transparent and
publicly visible."
"We encourage museums to deaccession ... in a way that
eliminates any real or
perceived conflict of interest in the disposal of the
objects. That's why most museums
use a very public venue and independent enterprise, such as
an auction, to dispose of
objects," he said.
Baughman defended the selection of Diamant, noting he came
up with nearly $1
million in two days for the museum. Asked about Wade's
association with Diamant,
Baughman reiterated his contention that there was no
conflict of interest.
TARNISHED REPUTATION
Dissident museum members charge the sale has tarnished the
75-year-old institution's
sterling reputation as a repository for the study of Native
American, geologic and
prehistoric artifacts. .
Longtime MNA members such as Cynthia Perin, F. Denise
Colton and Judith Leary
cite the sale as a key issue in their effort to unseat some
or all of the 16-member
MNA board of trustees. A petition calling for a special
election was delivered
Thursday to trustees.
They note that according to the minutes of the annual MNA
members meeting held six
weeks after the sale was publicly announced by trustees,
board chairman Charles
Connell said the "art was sold to one person who will see
to its upkeep and
preservation."
The minutes from the June 8, 2002, meeting went on to say
the "art was not core to
the Museum's education, research, or fine arts collection
..."
Leary said the minutes don't reflect it, but a trustee also
said that after the unnamed
person receiving the collection died, the items would be
going to a "university
collection."
Because it is now common knowledge that the art has been
sold across the nation
and is not being held by one person, Leary and others feel
they weren't told the truth.
"I was absolutely astonished to hear that pretty much the
textile collection was broken
up immediately and headed out to sale, because we were told
it was going to be
preserved and donated on to a university," Leary said.
"It made it all palatable, but now we find out it didn't
really happen that way," Leary
added.
Perin said she is filing a complaint with the AAM and has
hired legal counsel to try to
find a way to return items that have been sold to
accredited museums.
She's heard that one of the Navajo weavings is at the
Chicago Institute of Art. The
Chicago museum did not return calls and an e-mail request
to confirm if it purchased
the item.
Perin dismissed MNA trustees' claims that the collection
items sold were not
significant pieces.
"They really were core to mission of the museum which is
the study of the geology of
the Colorado Plateau and its art. For sure Hosteen Klah was
a very important
collection," Perin said.
UNPRECEDENTED PRESSURE
Now, little more than a year after the sale, MNA trustees
and acting museum director
Baughman defend the unprecedented sale as harsh but
necessary medicine to save the
museum.
In a recent letter to MNA's 3,200 members, Baughman
stressed the unprecedented
pressure trustees were under when they considered the
choice of closing or selling
pieces of the collection.
"There was no 'white knight' in the wings, ready to save
us. In hindsight, I don't know
that we had any alternative," Baughman wrote.
Able, of the American Association of Museums, disagreed.
If trustees of a museum are faced with the decision of
either selling assets or closing
doors: "Then they should go out of business and give the
collection to an institution
that can care for it," he said.
The policy is rigid, but it's aimed at preserving
invaluable works of arts and objects
that should be kept in public trust and not sold to private
collectors, he said.
"It is our feeling that an institution has got to have a
community base of support,
financial and otherwise, in order to exist and to fulfill
its mission. If that support is not
available in the community, the best thing to do for the
collection is for the museum to
go out of business and find ... other museums that are
capable in other communities to
support it," said Able.
Baughman said MNA trustees considered closing the museum
for six months to
reorganize, but decided against it.
"We would have lost the staff. No staff members could sit
with six months for no pay.
We have a wonderful staff ... it's the staff that's kept
the museum going. To let those
people go would have been the end of the museum. I was
opposed to that," he said.
As Perin seeks legal action to recover some of the
artifacts, Arizona Attorney Terry
Goddard said Friday that he's been contacted by MNA members
concerned about
the trustees' action.
Goddard said he is "looking into" some of the issues
related to the MNA sale.
Reporter Gary Ghioto can be reached at 556-2253 or
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MNA Finances, 1999-2002
Contributions Total Revenues Total Expenses Net Income
1999* $2,352,269 $5,355,802 $3,667,173 $1,688,629
2000* $1,984,767 $4,418,734 $4,021,647 $397,087
2001** $763,555 $3,619,238 $4,772,108 ($1,152,870)
2002** $1,105,268 $3,954,224*** $4,166,747 ($212,523)
* IRS filings
** Unaudited MNA financial statements
*** Includes $947,000 from sale of collection item
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