0.3 Chapter one: crisis in the headlines

The outcry that had led to the appointment of the advisory committee was "public" in every respect, and articles appeared in the New York press that attempted to explain the reasons for the Society's problems. In general, these ar­ticles emphasized the Society's reputation as an elitist institution, its inability to engage both its surrounding community and the general public in its collections and programs, and the magnitude of its financial difficulties. A New York Times article headlined "Is This the End for New York's Attic?" laid much of the blame on the Society's board of trustees, describing a "depressing saga of crisis man­agement."

There were disparaging articles in other papers as well. An article in the New York Observer, headlined "New-York Historical Society Rattling Toward Disintegra­tion," was particularly critical of Society management.

Déjà vu?

This was not the first time that crisis had enveloped the Society. In 1988, a simi­lar public controversy developed after the Society laid off one-fourth of its employees and announced plans to sell roughly forty European paintings.

The Society's decision to sell some of its art drew sharp criticism from the professional museum community. Richard Oldenberg, director of the Museum of Modern Art, said, "If you start cannibalizing your collections, for whatever wor­thy purpose, it's an abdication of responsibility by the people running the place."

The Society's problems did not end with the criticisms of layoffs and deaccessioning. In the days following these announcements, a two-year-old confiden­tial trustees' report detailing horrendous conditions at an off-site storage facility was obtained by the New York Times. Apparently, some paintings had been dam­aged or had been allowed to deteriorate as a result of the poor storage environ­ment in a New Jersey warehouse. The resulting Times expose attracted the attention of the New York State attorney general, who launched an investiga­tion into "whether the art collection is being properly cared for and what legal consequences that may have."