Debt Causes Chicago's Field Museum To Auction Off Collections

If you are hoping to see famous items such as paintings by 19th century artist George Caitlin at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, you will be out of luck. Citing massive debt bought on by the Great Recession, the museum has auctioned off these works and some of its other collections in order to stay afloat.

According to report on NPR, the museum saw its endowment take a huge hit after the stock market tanked both in 2002 and 2008. Combined with bonds issued in 2002 to add an undergrounds collection center and make other updates, the Field Museum found itself in massive debt. To make matters worse, an expected increase in attendance did not occur, causing the institution to miss its fundraising goals.

Even after various cost-cuttings and layoffs, Field Museum CEO Richard Larivere told NPR that the institution's budget is still $5 million in the red, and most of that budget is slated to pay off debt.

Larivere became CEO this year and arrived after the previous head had decided that the best course of financial action was to sell off some of its collections. The practice -- known as deaccessioning -- is common in the museum world though there are some generally accepted guidelines on how the funds from these sales are to be used. For example, University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute states that institute will only deaccession collections to "establish order and purpose to the collection," among other reasons.

The Field Museum used the nearly $15 million in funds from their deaccessioning to pay off certain staff members and to purchase new artifacts, which Larivere said is within the accepted guidelines for the practice. He also said that the museum would continue to sell off collections if it needed more money to balance their budget.

Although deaccessioning is an accepted practice there is some concern that it could cause donors to think twice before donating treasured items to museums.

You can read the full story on NPR's website.

LACMA Proposes Merger With Struggling Museum

Struggling with financial troubles and staff and board defections, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA) has been contacted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) about a potential merger.

According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, LACMA director Michael Govan and two co-chairs of his board made the offer to the MOCA board in a Feb. 24 letter. Sources who have seen the letter but were not authorized to discuss it told The Times that the proposed acquisition would preserve MOCA's two downtown LA locations and they would still operate them under the MOCA brand.

Additionally, LACMA would agree to raise $100 million for the two museums as a condition for completing the deal.

The proposed acquisition was confirmed by LACMA in a blog post on its website by Govan, who wrote that he "appreciates" the impact MOCA has on the community and desires to see that work continue as part of a successful merger.

"Combining LACMA and MOCA would strengthen both [museums]. LACMA’s mission is to share world-class art with the widest array of audiences possible," wrote Govan in the blog post. "MOCA’s downtown location, extraordinary collection and devoted constituency, combined with LACMA’s modern art masterpieces, large audiences and broad educational outreach (especially in schools near downtown L.A.) would create a cultural institution that is much more than the sum of its parts."

Founded in 1979, MOCA has fallen on hard times in recent years. According to an article in The New York Times, the 2010 hiring of Jeffrey Deitch as the museum's director was criticized, as the Manhattan art dealer was considered to be too celebrity-driven. In June of that same year, MOCA's long-time curator Paul Schimmel was forced out, and that was soon followed by a mass-exodus of board members.

Ultimately, Govan believes that a merger with LACMA would not only solve MOCA's current financial problems, it would also set the combined organization up for future success. He wrote in his blog post that the merger would open up new opportunities for visitors and donors alike.

"The scale and common purpose of the larger combined institution would provide stability, confidence, and opportunity for donors," he wrote. "Each facility and location could retain individual character and the potential to reach different audiences."

This is not the first time to two art museums have been involved in merger talks. The two institutions were discussing a deal in 2008 until philanthropist Eli Broad pledged a $30 million matching gift to MOCA, making the merger unnecessary.

National Museum Of Natural History Gets Major Donation

David H. Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries, has made his mark on National Museum of Natural History by donating $35 million to the Washington, D.C.-based museum.

The major gift, which was announced by the Smithsonian Institute last Thursday, will be used to build a new dinosaur hall, according to a report in The Washington Post. It is the largest single donation the museum has ever received, and the fifth largest in Smithsonian history.

Koch, who might be best known for his support of conservative causes, has been a member of the museum's advisory board for the past 15 years. He told The Post that he made the donation because he believes the institution's current dinosaur hall is "obsolete." Many of the specimens included in the current dinosaur exhibit have been there since the museum first opened 100 years ago.

This is certainly not Koch's first experience with philanthropy related to dinosaur exhibits. He donated $20 million to the dinosaur hall in New York City's American Museum of Natural History in 2006. He also gave $100 million to the renovation project for the State Theater of New York at Lincoln Center.

The National Museum of Natural History's current dinosaur exhibit will close in 2014, with the renovated hall scheduled for completion in 2019. The total cost of the work is estimated at $45 million.

You can read more about this story in The Washington Post.

California Academy of Sciences Tops Most Expensive U.S. Museums

How would you like to spend $30 to go to a museum? That's the amount you will have to shell out if you want to enjoy the California Academy of Sciences.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based museum tops Consumer Search's top 20 most expensive museums in the U.S. Other institutions that made this dubious list were New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art ($25; recommended price), Boston's Museum of Fine Arts ($22), and Washington, D.C.'s International Spy Museum ($19.95).

Museums are mostly nonprofits and thus free from property taxes, which would lead the average citizen to believe they should be relatively cheap to enter. This seems like a rational thought, but there's a number of issues. The pieces that appear in these museums can sometimes go for millions of dollars and those prices have to be subsidized somehow. Museums also have legions of curators, art restorers, and researches on staff, and they don't come cheap either. Finally, government grants to museums have continually decreased in value, according to a study by USA Today.

There are ways to avoid these steep prices. Many of these museums allow visitors to purchase annual memberships which reduce the prices of tickets. There are also some institutions that have free admission on weekends and certain times. Yet D.C. seems to have the best deal: Most of the museums there, outside of the Spy Museum, are free. This includes the National Gallery of Art and the Air and Space Museum.

Want to see Consumer Search's full list? Head on over to their website and see which museums will cost you the most.