Visitor Attitudes to Deaccessioning in Italian Public Museums: An Econometric Analysis

Marilena Vecco (vecco@eshcc.eur.nl), Andrej Srakar (andrej.srakar@ier.si) and Michele Piazzai (m.piazzai@tudelft.nl)
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Marilena Vecco: Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Michele Piazzai: Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

No AWP-02-2016, ACEI Working Paper Series from Association for Cultural Economics International

Abstract: Deaccessioning is a largely controversial practice involving the sale or disposal of objects from a museum’s collection. Although it has received increasing attention in the past few decades as a solution to museums’ financial concerns, its implications have rarely been researched in academia which is mainly due to the ‘barely legal’ status of deaccessioning as a management practice. Previous research suggests that visitors’ responses may vary depending on some factors, such as the destination of income generated by deaccessioning operations and the public’s perception of the museum collection as a public good. We address this question by analysing visitors’ responses in Italian public museums. Specifically, we hypothesize that stronger public cultural identity of the collection and the purpose of the income generated by deaccessioning strongly affect the attitudes to deaccessioning. Using structural equation modelling, we estimate several important determinants of visitors’ responses. We also show that attitudes to deaccessioning do not influence the decision to visit a museum. The findings of the article have implications for museum governance and particularly for the knowledge about deaccessioning in cultural economics and museum management.

Keywords: public museums; deaccessioning; visitor attitudes; structural equation models; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C36 C38 D12 H40 Z11 Z18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2016-02, Revised 2016-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul and nep-eur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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