NEW YORK.- The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, one of the world’s finest collections of modern and contemporary art, will deaccession antiquities and other historic works in a series of auctions at Sotheby’s over the course of 2007. Proceeds from the sales will be used exclusively for future acquisitions that conform to the mission of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery: “to acquire, exhibit, and preserve both modern and contemporary art,” a tradition that has been in place since the museum’s inception in 1862. The decision to deaccession these works, all of which fall outside the scope of the museum's mission, follows a strategic planning process, begun in 2000, as well as an extensive review of the collection. The selection of works approved by the Board of Directors includes Classical, Roman, Egyptian, Indian, South East Asian and Chinese Antiquities, as well as African, Pre-Columbian and European Works of Art and Old Master Paintings. These works will be offered in Sotheby’s regular auctions of these categories beginning in March 2007, with a separate catalogue featuring the top forty highlights to be sold, as well as information on the history of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, to be published in January 2007. Proceeds from the sales are estimated to bring in excess of $15 million.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, indisputably one of the most important permanent collections of modern and contemporary art in the United States, has for the past century been committed to acquiring and exhibiting modern and contemporary art. Among the towering masterpieces of 20th century art included in the permanent collection are Jackson Pollock’s Convergence, 1952, Franz Kline’s New York, NY, 1953, Robert Motherwell’s Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 1953-54, Willem de Kooning’s Gotham News, 1955, Robert Rauschenberg’s Ace, 1962, and Andy Warhol’s 100 Cans, 1962, all of which were acquired either immediately or within a few years of their execution.

Louis Grachos, Director of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery said, “It is because of a tradition of successive generations of directors, curators, and Board members taking risks to acquire and exhibit the best contemporary art of their era that the Albright-Knox Art Gallery is one of America’s great institutions for modern and contemporary art. But no collection of contemporary art can remain great without ongoing acquisitions of significant works. The steps we take today will allow us to pursue this course more aggressively.”