Deaccession

Quick meaning: Deaccession is a verb meaning To officially remove an object from a ledger of a museum, art gallery or library so that it may be sold or disposed.

Meaning

To officially remove an object from a ledger of a museum, art gallery or library so that it may be sold or disposed.

More Meanings

1. The disposal of objects in this way, or the disposed object itself.

Example Sentences

The second is an unwritten rule that when a museum deaccessions a picture, the money should be used to purchase art only of the same period.

Over the past few years, the museum has quietly begun deaccessioning—the genteel art-world euphemism for “getting rid of”—large numbers of its city artifacts.

Perhaps he forgets that museums, too, have basements full of stored art, and not every piece is equally adored. The temptation must be great to “deaccession” some of it, and museums often do succumb.

At the last board meeting, trustee Edmund Carpenter moved to clamp down on private trades. All deaccessions, he proposed, should go to other museums, or failing that, to public sale with full disclosure of records and documentation. The motion failed to get a second and there the matter died.

Word Forms

• deaccessions
• deaccessioning
• deaccessioned

Synonyms for deaccession

Depending on context, synonyms include deacquisition.

Antonyms for deaccession

Common opposites include accession.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include destash, deaccess, deallocate, deshelve, decommission, delist.

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