# Deaccession: What the Codes Actually Allow
> The AAM, AAMD and Museums Association codes all restrict what deaccession money may fund. The sanctions differ: American museums lose loans, British museums lose accreditation.
> The Study - 2026-08-02
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## Key points
- The AAM code has said since 1993 that proceeds from selling collections may fund nothing but acquisition or direct care of collections.
- AAMD members voted on 30 September 2022 to permit direct care, defined narrowly as storage and preservation costs, and to exclude staff salaries and temporary exhibition costs.
- American sanctions work through loans: the Delaware Art Museum in 2014 and the Berkshire Museum in 2018 were cut off from member loans and collaborations.
- British sanctions work through regulation: Arts Council England removed Northampton's Accreditation on 1 August 2014 for a minimum of five years after the Sekhemka sale.
## Three codes converge on one sentence about money
## Direct care was the phrase that moved, and it moved twice
## In America the sanction is loans, and loans are the currency
## In Britain the sanction is regulatory, and it bites harder
## Baltimore showed what a permission does not license
The codes do not protect objects. They protect the principle that a collection held in trust cannot be converted into working capital, and they defend it with the only sanctions their authors possess: in America the withdrawal of loans, in Britain the withdrawal of the accreditation that unlocks public money. Both worked in the cases that tested them, and both worked slowly and at a cost the sanctioned institution had already decided to accept. Anyone assessing a museum's finances should read its deaccession policy first, because it is the one document that reveals what the trustees think the collection is for.
## Questions
**What exactly counts as direct care under the current AAMD rule?**
The direct costs of storing or preserving works of art, which in practice means conservation treatment and storage materials such as archival housing and frames. The rule expressly excludes operations and capital expenses, staff salaries, and costs incurred solely for temporary exhibition display. A museum relying on it is expected to have a board-approved, publicly available policy.
**Can a British museum ever sell a work for money?**
Yes, but only where it can show the sale will significantly improve the long-term public benefit derived from the remaining collection, and only after other options have been exhausted. The Museums Association treats financially motivated disposal as a last resort, and Arts Council England can and does remove Accreditation for breaches, as it did to Northampton in 2014.
**Does an AAMD sanction have legal force?**
None. It is a request to member directors to suspend loans and exhibition collaborations with the sanctioned institution. Because major loan exhibitions depend on peer institutions, the practical effect on programming can be severe, but nothing prevents a museum from selling and accepting the sanction, which is what Delaware and Berkshire both did.
## Sources
- [1] American Alliance of Museums, Code of Ethics for Museums (adopted 1993, amended 2000), Collections section.
- [2] Association of Art Museum Directors, 'Membership of AAMD Approves Change to Deaccessioning Rule', vote concluded 30 September 2022.
- [3] Association of Art Museum Directors, 'AAMD Board of Trustees Approves Resolution to Provide Additional Financial Flexibility to Art Museums During Pandemic Crisis', 15 April 2020.
- [4] Association of Art Museum Directors, Standards and Practices, 'Professional Practices in Art Museums' (rev. 2022), 19 December 2022.
- [5] Association of Art Museum Directors, 'Association of Art Museum Directors Sanctions Delaware Art Museum', 18 June 2014.
- [6] Association of Art Museum Directors, 'AAMD Statement on Sanction of Berkshire Museum and La Salle University Art Museum', 25 May 2018.
- [7] Center for Art Law, 'Berkshire Stock: Much to do about Deaccessioning', 6 July 2018 (sale figures and Attorney General settlement terms).
- [8] Museums Association, 'ACE strips Northampton Museums Service of Accreditation', 1 August 2014.
- [9] Museums Association, 'Revised Code of Ethics approved at AGM', 5 November 2015.
- [10] The Art Newspaper, 'Baltimore Museum of Art calls off sale of Warhol, Still and Marden after outcry', 28 October 2020.
- [11] Wikipedia, 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' (tertiary source, used only for the present location of the ex-Delaware version at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; should be replaced with the museum's own accession record).