Tell me again about the public trust (Warhol Museum edition)

"The museum traded deaccessioned works from its collection for the painting."

"Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and the Case of the Missing Flag"

By Greg Allen.

"NYS is currently focusing on the use of resale certificates (which exempt a purchase from sales tax) in connection with art purchases."

Diana Wierbicki and Seth Cohen:  How Art Collectors Can Stay Out Of Tax Trouble In New York.

Simchowitz Settlement

Story here.  Background here.

Tell me again about the public trust (somehow, the museum has made peace with parting with more than 600 pieces of Chinese ceramics edition) (UPDATED)

The Met is selling them at Christie's.  They have 3,600 other Chinese ceramics, so it's not like selling off 15% of them is that big of a deal.  And it's not like "the essential point of museum collections" is that "once an object falls under the aegis of a museum, it is held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations."  Oh, it is?

UPDATE:  Daniel Grant emails a very good point:

"What struck me as odd is that the Met is defending its decision to sell (perhaps awaiting criticism of its move)...

"'About 60 percent of the things we’re deaccessioning came in 1879, so there wasn’t that much scholarship, there wasn’t that much discrimination,' Mr. Hearn. 'They’ve really been extensively reviewed; most have never been exhibited or published.'"

"...while disparaging these items in advance of a sale, which probably won't bolster the prices. I think the Met should pick one direction and stick with it."

"By digitizing and replicating objects of cultural heritage, we risk inviting a host of legal disputes over access and ownership."

An interesting piece in the Boston Globe a few days ago by Sonia Katyal and Simone Ross, on (among other things) 3D printing, art, and copyright.

"We are committed to rooting out tax abuses wherever we find them, especially in the art world, where the difference can be hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars in lost tax revenue" (UPDATED)

NYT:  Developer Aby Rosen to Pay $7 Million in Suit Over Unpaid Taxes on Art.

UPDATE:  Tim Schneider thinks Rosen got a raw deal:  "[W]hile some dealers certainly view tax laws as made to be broken, I actually side with Rosen and Gelfand here, at least based on what's been reported. Given that transactions in the art industry can happen anywhere at any time, hanging works at home hardly means they're not actively on the market."