Want a Popemobile? A 1904 Oldsmobile Touring Runabout? Step right up to the auction block…

One “solution”that I think we’ll be hearing more about as the economic climate gets tougher:attempting to sell parts (or all of) a collection. The General Motors Heritage Collection has announced that they are selling cars from their collection this month,including hundreds of concept and rare vehicles that have been stored by GM since being built. One way to look at this is from an appraisal and collections management standpoint:is this sale accomplishing goals such as the narrowing of the collection scope or removing vehicles that do not contribute to the strength of the collection? Perhaps the two-millionth Saturn from 1999 or the 2007 Yukon “CSI Vegas”aren’t the most important pieces of the collection–but it depends. Showing the progression of Saturn as a car from the first one in 1991 to the two millionth one in 1997 could be vitally important for some reason–it’s the job of the curatorial/museum staff to figure out what makes sense,and perhaps also to figure out whether the original reasoning for keeping these vehicles is still sound. Articles in the media seem to focus on the fact that GM is having a crisis,and the sale of these heritage vehicles could raise a little bit of cash–but even if they sold all of them,it would be a drop in the bucket (probably less than $5 million dollars by one estimate). I think this is more important in terms of discussing history in broader terms:whose responsibility is it to make sure that history isn’t being lost by selling off pieces to the highest bidder? Are we still able to understand and interpret in the same manner without having the physical object? What is the import of a single object,and does that differ from the importance that it holds within the context of the rest of the collection,particularly considering that all of the items in this auction have an ironclad provenance attached? (They’ve been in the custody of GM since they were conceived and “born”). I think we’ll see a lot of individuals trying to part with items perceived to have historical value,and probably more institutions doing the same,particularly corporate collections.

A few articles and posts about the sale:

Cash-Starved GM to part with trove of historic,unique vehicles- Detroit Free Press

Museum:Portion of GM heritage car collection up for sale- Lansing State Journal

GM’s own heritage collection is up for sale- Huffington Post

Classic GM cars to go on the block- Los Angeles Times