Deaccession
The formal removal of an artwork from a collection because it has deteriorated beyond repair, no longer fits its site, or its continued display can no longer be justified.
The cardinal rule: write the deaccession policy before you need it. A policy adopted in calm weather protects everyone when a specific work becomes contested: clear criteria, artist notification requirements, an ordered list of options (return to the artist, relocation, sale, storage, and destruction only as a last resort). A process invented mid-controversy convinces no one.
Recent public debates over monuments have pulled deaccession out of registrar obscurity and into council chambers. Programs that weathered those debates best were the ones that could point to an existing process and follow it visibly.