Maritime Museum cleans house

The cannonball is on the "E" list, and may soon be returned to the spot where it fell more than a century ago and buried itself 45 feet under the ground.

A big spring-cleaning exercise is under way at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, south-east London, which will lead to one of its largest stores being emptied in the next two years.

This will cause the dispersal of at least 4,500 objects, a tiny fraction of the 2.5m in the collection, but believed to be the largest block disposal of objects by any national museum.

From the Guardian. In comparison to museums in the US, British museums are not big on pruning their collections. And while deaccessioning can be controversial (previous posts here), keeping everything is not a practical long-term solution, either. No wonder other British museums are looking to the Maritime Museum's stocktaking as a potential model.

Posted by David on December 6, 2004 10:43 PM