How the National Gallery of Canada acquires, sells off its artworks

The National Gallery of Canada’s decision to sell off a multi-million dollar Chagall painting next month at a New York auction in order to buy a “national treasure” that it refuses to identify has prompted a lot of second-guessing from armchair art critics. Here are the policies and processes that the gallery abides by when it acquires and, much more infrequently, sells works of art.

ACQUISITIONS

1. The gallery may acquire works by purchase, gift, behest, exchange, transfer or commission. Its annual budget for acquisitions is $8 million, which is not divided equally among the gallery ’s five curatorial departments (Canadian art, Indigenous art, European, American and Asian art, Contemporary art, and prints and drawings).

2. The gallery ’s director and CEO has the authority to make purchases of less than $100,000. The acquisitions committee of the gallery’s board of trustees has authority for purchases between $100,000 and $1,000,000. When the purchase price is $1,000,000 or more, the board of trustees has authority, following a recommendation by the board acquisitions committee.

3. Before consideration by the board acquisitions committee, proposed acquisitions of $100,000 or more are recommended by the curatorial acquisitions committee, which includes the gallery’s director and CEO, its two deputy directors, its chief financial officer and curatorial staff.

4. The curatorial acquisitions committee’s discussions are based on a written justification for each work. It typically addresses these criteria: the work’s aesthetic quality, its condition, attribution and authenticity, historical importance, legal title and any ethical concerns.

DE-ACCESSIONS

1. De-accession is a decision to remove art from a museum’s collection. It is followed by disposition — ways in which it can permanently dispose of a work, including sale, transfer, exchange or destruction. Whatever the means, “disposition ... is only undertaken under exceptional circumstances ... to refine and improve the quality and appropriateness of the collection, and to meet the gallery’s legal and ethical obligations,” says the National Gallery’s dispositions policy.

2. There are limits on what can be de-accessioned. It will not include works by living artists. Nor will the gallery dispose of art if that disposal is contrary to the terms on which it was acquired.

3. Proceeds from the sale of a deaccessioned artwork may only be used for acquisitions, and not for operations or capital expenses.

4. Criteria for disposition include lack of value, inauthenticity, damage and/or deterioration, and support for “the gallery’s effort to refine and improve its collections.” A proposal for de-accessioning and disposal is to move up the ranks, seeking approval from a department’s senior curator, the director of conservations and technical research, the chief curator and then the director and CEO before it is submitted for approvals from to the curatorial acquisitions committee, the board’s acquisitions committee and then the board of trustees.

5. Authority for de-accessioning and disposal of art rests with the gallery’s board of trustees, on the recommendation of the board’s acquisitions committee and with the advice of the director and CEO. Approval requires a two-thirds majority of present trustees.

6. If the board of directors directs that an artwork be sold, the gallery must first offer it for sale to so-called “category A institutions” of which there are about 240 in Canada, including 160 museums and galleries. If none of them buy the work, then the gallery may sell it privately or at auction.