Article On Publicity Rules For Public Trusts

Allison Anna Tait (Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law) recently published an article entitled, Publicity Rules For Public Trusts, Cardozo Arts & Ent. L.J.. Provided below is an abstract of the article:

Deaccessioning – the practice of a museum selling art from its collection – is highly contested because it is perceived to be a significant violation of the public trust, in all meanings of the term. Nonetheless, public resource and trust law rules treat deaccessioning quite differently. Public resource rules, exemplified by industry standards and state statutes, strictly prohibit the use of deaccessioning funds for any purposes other than to purchase new art. Trust law rules, on the other hand, work primarily to ensure that the terms of organizational charters, trust instruments, and gift agreements are met. One goal of this Article is to identify and describe the public resource and trust law frameworks. A second goal is to leverage the debate surrounding deaccessioning as a means for discussing how the two frameworks compete and why the trust law framework, enhanced by the addition of corporate governance principles and grounded in “publicity” values, is preferable.