DENVER—After a few unusually busy months in the world of museum deaccessioning — during which the Association of Art Museum Directors censured New York's National Academy Museum for selling a work to raise funds for operating expenses and criticized Brandeis University following its announcement that it will close its Rose Art Museum and sell its entire collection — the association has issued a gentler ruling on a situation at the Denver Art Museum, reports Tyler Green on his Modern Art Notes blog.

The association ordered an investigation this summer of a deal in which the museum entered into an artwork-sharing arrangement with a donor.

In order to acquire the 1892 Thomas Eakins painting Cowboy Singing, estimated to be worth $8–10 million, the museum struck a deal with local collector and billionaire Philip Anschutz under which he received 50 percent ownership of both the Eakins work and another painting in the collection, Charles Deas's Long Jakes (The Rocky Mountain Man) — in return for a financial donation. The two works were to rotate between the museum and the Anschutz collection every six months, the Denver Post reported at the time.

The AAMD has now concluded its investigation of whether the arrangement — in particular Anschutz's purchase of a share in the Deas work — violates any of its guidelines.

In a statement, the AAMD said, "The Board of AAMD strongly encourages member museums not to employ fractional deaccessions as a method of collections development," but it also announced that it would not reprimand the Denver museum or ask for any changes to its arrangement with Anschutz.

A spokesperson for the museum told Green that "no formal revisions have been made to the original transaction."