history slide test

The 1972 Auctions

In the late-1950s and 1960s, the management of the Art Museum was increasingly absorbed by the Academy of Art. In the early 1970s, inflation and escalating operating costs at the Academy created a fiscal crisis. In 1972, after exhausting alternative fundraising options, the Galleries Committee decided to sell a portion of the Art Museum’s collection of fine and decorative artworks to fund the Academy’s endowment. At that time, the museum profession did not have formal guidelines that forbade the sale of artwork to fund anything but the acquisition of new works of art or to use for the care of the collection. Although many pieces were sold, those works affiliated with Cranbrook and its history were spared.