For the record:
11:33 AM, Dec. 11, 2020An earlier version of this post said the Palm Springs Art Museum is in Florida. It is in California.
The deaccessioning of artworks from a museum’s permanent collection is widely and deeply frowned upon. Times critic Christopher Knight called MoLAA’s mass unloading of work by artists from Central and South America, Cuba, Mexico and the United States “a virtual fire sale of art” that was an “unprecedented bulk-removal of works from the museum’s collection.”
MoLAA’s collection consisted of 1,333 objects, so the auction at which 44 of the 59 key works actually sold amounted to a reduction of about 3.3%.