DEACCESSIONING AND ITS DISCONTENTS

The first history of the deaccession of objects from museum collections that defends deaccession as an essential component of museum practice.Museums often stir controversy when they deaccession works -- formally remove objects from permanent collections -- with s ome critics accusing them of betraying civic virtue and the public trust. In fact, Martin Gammon argues in Deaccessioning and Its Di scontents, deaccession has been an essential component of the museum experiment for centuries.