Glossary Collecting and the antiquities trade
Deaccession
Also called: de-accession
The formal removal of an object from a museum's permanent collection, usually followed by its sale, exchange or transfer.
Museums accession objects by entering them in their registers, and deaccessioning reverses that step. It is governed by each museum's own rules and, in many countries, by professional codes that limit sales and direct any proceeds to new acquisitions or to the care of the collection.
Deaccessioning is one of the main ways Cypriot antiquities re-entered private hands. The Metropolitan Museum sold duplicates from the Cesnola collection between 1916 and 1928, and several British provincial museums later disposed of Cypriot material they had received from the British Museum's excavations of the 1890s. Such objects often still carry a museum number, which lets their history be traced (Collecting Cypriot Antiquities Today).
Related terms
- Museum duplicates
Objects judged surplus to a museum because it held similar examples; the Cyprus Museum sold such duplicates to the public until 1991.
- Partage
The division of excavated finds between the host country and the excavators, the system by which many Cypriot antiquities lawfully went abroad.
- Repatriation
The return of cultural objects to their country or community of origin, whether through legal action, negotiation or a voluntary gift.