Museums becoming essentially art auctioners is a very lucrative business:

Previously rare and still highly disputatious, deaccessioning has become an increasingly common practice following the Association of Art Museum Directors’ April suspension of a rule allowing the deaccessioning of works only to provide funds to buy more works, and its specification that sale funds could be funneled to the care of collections.

The suspension of the rule comes at a time when many institutions are struggling financially under the burden of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic. To date, the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York; and the Palm Springs Art Museum in California have taken advantage of the rule. Across the pond, London’s Royal Academy is contemplating deaccessioning a Michelangelo tondo, to the presumed tune of $127 million.