N.J. Historical Society sale of items criticized
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
I suppose the guy in Princeton thinks it would have been better for the museum to have gone out of business? I don't know, I can see his point, and without knowing more about the situation it's hard to judge. But if an institution feels strongly about such an issue, they could put a paragraph in their bylaws prohibiting such sales. In the absence of that, seems like all of us must sometimes do things that we dislike just to survive.
I have no problem with this. Museums buy and sell all the time. The mission of this particular organization is NJ history. If would be appropriate if this map goes to a federal museum.
I agree with the gentleman from Princeton. As a public institution, they should preserve something this important. It is ugly to think that it could have landed in some rapper's collection next to his "snoop dog's first gold record".
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5382260
http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/histgeog/buellmap.htm
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5382260
http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/america/unitedstates/histgeog/buellmap.htm
Okay, granted.
But still, they do receive money from the state (taxpayer dollars via grants), and selling something like this to the highest bidder seems to go against their charter.
Yes, it would be better for them to go out of business and auction off everything to pay their debts. Or maybe the state should bail them out and just raise our taxes to pay for it.
OK, sorry. But I am just making the point that organizations as well as individuals must sometimes to things they'd rather not do when faced with a choice between life and death. Seriously, how would you resolve a situation like this if you needed to raise over $1 million? I'm sure the decision was made after considering many alternatives.
For starters, they could have limited the bidding to stable U.S. museums unlikely to fold. Or even...with something this precious...donate it to the Smithsonian, sell everything else that could be classified as only mildly important, and then declare bankruptcy.