Note: The Metropolitan Museum of Art deaccessioned "duplicate" pieces from the extensive Luigi Palma de Cesnola Collection in March and April, 1928 with Anderson Galleries in Manhattan.

 

The following quote is from a letter written on February 14th, 1928 from Robert de Forest (the president of the MET) to Mitchell Kennerley (the president of Anderson Galleries). The letter is found on the inside cover of the auction catalogue: Cypriote & Classical Antiquities, duplicates of the Cesnola & other collections. Anderson Galleries, Inc. [1928]

"Rather than continue to hold these objects in storage where they perform no useful service, the Trustees have determined to dispose of them by auction sale in March and April so that other museums and private collectors can obtain them and enjoy their possession. They deem it a duty to the appreciation of art that all these objects should be put to use. They earlier considered distributing them among other American museums, but to attempt to do so would have involved questions of discrimination and would have delayed vacating space for which the Museum has urgent and immediate need. It is the hope of the Trustees that by distributing these objects among a large number of people the interest in Classical antiquities will be increased. The decorative value of this kind of material is only gradually being recognized. There is no better way of stimulating its appreciation than by placing such objects of art in as many museums, colleges, libraries and private houses as possible."

 

The following quote is found in The MET 59th Annual Report of the Trustees - 1928, which was published in New York in 1929.

"An important and unusual event of the year was the sale by auction in March and April of duplicates acquired by purchase with the collection of Cypriote antiquities in 1874 and 1876, and other duplicates of objects in the Department of Classical Art. The Trustees have never before acted upon their right to dispose of property of this character; their present decision was governed chiefly by their desire to make these objects useful to others and to save the care and space involved in continual storage."