deaccession

verb

de·​ac·​ces·​sion ˌdē-ik-ˈse-shən 

-ak-

deaccessioned; deaccessioning; deaccessions

transitive verb

: to sell or otherwise dispose of (an item in a collection)

the museum deaccessioned several paintings

deaccession noun

Examples of deaccession in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

With time, Walther’s bound volume of his 1951 conference materials was deaccessioned by his institute’s library. —IEEE Spectrum, 9 Feb. 2021

On May 7, the Nashville Metropolitan Council passed an ordinance that allowed the Parthenon Museum to deaccession the collection of pre-Columbian artifacts and enable their repatriation to Mexico. —Karen K. Ho, ARTnews.com, 24 July 2024

The relic, like many others that the museum has deaccessioned over the years, no longer appears on its website. —Sam Tabachnik, The Denver Post, 10 June 2024

Annually, the Met typically deaccessions around $10 million worth of art. —Angelica Villa For Artnews, Robb Report, 21 Sep. 2021

In 2011, it was deaccessioned—or permanently removed from the collection—and sold to an anonymous collector in a private sale through Christie’s, with proceeds going to fund preservation of other items in the hall’s collection, said spokesperson Rich Desrosiers. —Jocelyn Noveck, Fortune, 28 Apr. 2023

The Education Gallery is featuring a display curated by Canning on deaccessioning art, with an explanation of what the process is and examples from the Brauer’s collection of pieces that the museum can and cannot divest from. —Amy Lavalley, Chicago Tribune, 14 Apr. 2023

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art deaccessioned a painting by Mark Rothko gifted to the museum by Peggy Guggenheim and used the proceeds to make the collections more diverse. —Carolina A. Miranda, latimes.com, 29 June 2019

One area of concern could be whether the university is violating the intents of any donors or funders by selling the 46 works of art deaccessioned by the museum and consigned to Christie’s. —Stephan Salisbury, Philly.com, 16 Mar. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for deaccession

• decompression
• dispossession
• indiscretion
• intercession
• introgression
• nonaggression
• prepossession
• recompression
• repossession
• retrocession
• retrogression
• supersession