A new deaccessioning operation by the Brooklyn Museum brings the topic of strategic collection management and the related sales of collection objects on the market back to the forefront.
What is the Brooklyn Museum selling from its collection objects?
About 200 objects from the Brooklyn Museum, ranging from period furniture to watercolors and tapestries, will go up for auction in a new round of selective sales.
The sale, organized by Brunk Auctions for April 9, opens with a strong presence of American furniture. Highlights include a late 17th-century carved oak sideboard, estimated at $60,000–$90,000, and a 19th-century painted chest valued at $7,000–$10,000.
The rarest piece is a walnut dressing table dating around 1690, with shaped legs, previously displayed in the museum’s period rooms. It is the only surviving example of an American dressing table of this type, which is why the estimate rises to $80,000–$120,000.
The same auction features works by Abraham Walkowitz and John Butler, as well as embroidered textiles and embroidery samplers from the 17th to 19th centuries. These lots are estimated in a range between a few hundred and several thousand dollars.
Why is the museum proceeding with new disposals?
This phase of sales follows previous sales of historical furniture in 2024 and tapestries in 2025, part of a “continuous process to transform storage spaces into galleries, thus displaying a larger portion of our collections,” explained a spokesperson for the institution via email.
According to the museum, the core of works now for sale was identified through a targeted review, conducted in compliance with the deaccessioning guidelines set by the Association of Art Museum Directors. The absence of these items, they emphasized, “will not reduce the overall value of our collections.”
“In this case, these objects were of lower quality compared to others in the collection,” added the spokesperson. Furthermore, the museum states it prioritizes institutional transfers whenever possible and has already placed some pieces with other museums, historical societies, libraries, and schools.
That said, there remain works “more suited to a public auction sale.” The proceeds will support conservation and new acquisitions aimed at filling specific gaps in the permanent collections.
What other historical lots are coming to the market?
Meanwhile, the international market offers a series of documents, works, and artifacts of strong appeal. In the epistolary segment, a letter from 1955 signed by the young senator John F. Kennedy to his lover, the Swedish aristocrat Gunilla von Post, on U.S. Senate letterhead, with the announcement “I am coming to Stockholm,” stands out.
This private missive, preserved in good condition apart from some small ink smudges, is for sale until March 26 at RR Auctions, with an estimate around $30,000.
On another front, the couple formed by comedian Lily Tomlin and screenwriter Jane Wagner is bringing a selection of their significant collection of art and photography to the market. The lots will be offered by Bonhams on April 8.
Among the standout pieces are works from the “Short Stories” series by Robert Rauschenberg, including a piece personally donated to the actress. Additionally, screen prints by Andy Warhol and photographs by Diane Arbus and Annie Leibovitz are offered, confirming the collection’s weight.
In the field of video game memorabilia, an auction dedicated to video games scheduled for March 28 at Heritage Auctions is led by a sealed copy, in excellent condition, of the first edition for Playstation of Resident Evil.
The lot, consigned by the collector known as TheGraded80s_Kid, who foresaw the collectible potential of sealed games, has already reached bids of $97,500.
Remaining in the realm of letters, a fragment of an 18th-century letter by paleontology pioneer Mary Anning is up for auction, also at Bonhams, until March 26. Here the scholar, famous for the discoveries of Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus remains, confesses with rare frankness to feeling “exhausted” and that “the name of fossils makes me sick.”
The Lyme Regis Museum in the UK is raising funds to acquire the document, which has a maximum estimate of $8,000. This institutional solidarity effort highlights the historical and symbolic value of the text.
In the natural history sector, a 66-million-year-old Triceratops fossil arrives on the auction platform Joopiter, marking the first dinosaur offered by this operator. The specimen, nicknamed Trey, was excavated in 1993.
Trey has been continuously displayed since 1995 for thirty years at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Today, a realization around $5.5 million is expected, with the auction closing on March 31, in line with the race for iconic specimens.
A particular case concerns the works of Charles Bronson, a long-term British inmate, also the subject of a biopic, who reveals himself as the author of a vast artistic production. A collection of about 500 mixed media works created during decades of incarceration is now for sale by David Duggleby Auctioneers.
The collection is estimated between £100,000 and £200,000 (or $133,680–$267,300). According to the information released, the seventy-three-year-old Bronson will not directly profit from the operation, an element that distinguishes this sale from other prison art sales.
In the epistolary chapter, a letter from 1875 sent by Claude Monet to Gustave Manet, brother of painter Édouard Manet, returns to the market, in which the future master of Impressionism asks for a loan of 1,000 francs.
In the document, offered by International Autograph Auctions on March 25, Monet proposes as collateral 35 paintings. The estimate is between €80,000 and €120,000 (equivalent to $92,100–$138,200), a significant figure compared to the economic difficulties the artist faced in those years.
How is Jim Irsay’s collection changing the guitar market?
The most striking chapter of these weeks concerns the sale of Jim Irsay‘s pop collection at Christie’s in New York, which totaled $94.5 million. The operation has effectively redefined the parameters for collectible guitars.
During his lifetime, the late owner of the Indiana Colts amassed a vast array of instruments, of which about 200 guitars were dispersed in auction sessions held between March 3 and 17. The string instruments alone generated $84 million.
Among these, the absolute star was the 1969 black Fender Stratocaster of David Gilmour, which realized $14.5 million, becoming the most valuable guitar ever sold. Previously, the record belonged to the Martin D-18E at $6 million owned by Kurt Cobain.
The auction led Christie’s to place three of the most expensive guitars in history. Right behind Gilmour’s famous “Black Strat” was the custom guitar built by Doug Irwin for Jerry Garcia, sold for $11.5 million, followed by Cobain’s blue Fender Mustang, made iconic by the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, sold for $6.9 million.
Additionally, two Gibson SG models owned respectively by Eric Clapton and George Harrison achieved results of $3 million and $2.2 million. Overall, these values bring electric guitars closer to price ranges once almost exclusively the domain of Stradivari violins.
For comparison, the “Lady Blunt” Stradivari violin of 1721 set a record in 2011, realizing $15.9 million. The figures reached today by instruments linked to rock icons show a convergence between the music market and that of historical instruments.
According to Julian Pradels, president of Christie’s Americas, these results represent “a testament to the enduring resonance of our shared cultural icons.” In perspective, they could consolidate signature guitars as high-end assets comparable, for rarity and collector demand, to other top market segments.
Overall, between museum disposals, historical letters, fossils, and musical instruments, the auction landscape of late March and early April confirms how the boundary between art, collectibles, and cultural memory is increasingly fluid and interconnected.
Image: Early New York walnut sawn-leg dressing table, from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Photo courtesy of Brunk Auctions.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
She is also a marketing teacher at Digital Coach in Milan and she published a book about NFTs for the Italian publishing house Mondadori, while she is also helping artists and company to entering in the sector. As advisor, Amelia is also involved in metaverse-related project such as The Nemesis and OVER.
