Hand-Me-Down Art

Art blogger Tyler Green has news of another deaccession:

The St. Louis Art Museum is putting ten pieces from its collection on the block at Christie's, including Renoir's Portrait of a Girl Sewing, carrying an estimate of $2.5 million - $3.5 million, and Matisse's Woman Seated in an Armchair, expected to fetch $1.8 million - $2.5 million.

In a statement Green received, the museum's director, Brent Benjamin, explained the decision:

Works are selected based on their consideration as being minor, and/or never or infrequently exhibited works by artists for whom there are far greater representations in the collection.

The proceeds from the sale are supposed to go towards the acquisition of new (presumably, better) art for the museum, which just last week announced that it had bought Degas' The Milliners.

Who wants to buy SLAM's hand-me-downs? Is there a market for art that is considered "minor" and does "not meet the standards of the collection"? The big shots probably won't be interested in it, but we'd bet it'd make for a good starter collection. And when pickled animals are going for well over the high estimate on the top lot in SLAM's deaccession, $3.5 million for the work of an artist whose legacy has already firmly been planted in the history books looks like a good deal.