Museums Are Deaccessioning Art Due to COVID Struggles

Sotheby's technicians hang a painting by Claude Monet called 'Le Palais Ducal' during a media opportunity at Sotheby's auction rooms in London, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019.

Like many cultural institutions, museums have been hit hard this year. In April, the Association of Art Museum Directors announced that it was relaxing their guidelines, allowing museums to sell artwork from their permanent collections to address budget shortfalls. Angelica Villa, editor of Art Market Monitor for ARTNews, talks about how many museums have sold pieces from their collections, why some question the morality of such sales, and why one sale became so controversial, it was cancelled at the last minute.