Museum curators and administrators faced with the prospect of deaccessioning artwork face difficult and complex issues, including both legal and ethical considerations, which impact the entire deaccession process. Deaccessioning, or the removal of work from a museum’s collection, is not a task museums should take lightly. Aspects of the procedure of deaccessioning are often governed by donative documents that may outline donor intent for a particular piece, regulations that affect when an artwork may be subject to deaccessioning, and internal policies that outline how such works may be deaccessioned. The following is a brief overview of the deaccessioning procedure and potential problems of which museum officials should be aware.

A threshold issue that museums must determine before the deaccession process can begin is whether the museum has clear title to the work to be deaccessioned. Under Section 2-714(2) of the Uniform Commercial Code, a purchaser can seek redress in the form of present value of the object from the seller if the purchaser is forced to return the object to its rightful owner. This section of the UCC is applicable to deaccessioning because if the museum does not have clear title to a piece it deaccessions, the eventual purchaser who is forced to turn the object over to the rightful owner can go after the museum for the present value of the piece when it was purchased.

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