Barnes Museum to Sell Off Items for Urgent Repair Needs

Times are tough for everyone these days and the Barnes Museum is looking to find alternative funding for urgent restoration needs at the 175-year-old Bradley Barnes home – by selling items formerly part of the museum collection.

The Barnes Museum announced Monday that it is de-accessioning items from the museum collection as a way of raising money for badly needed restoration including repairs for the roof, renovations to the garden and development of a stable restoration fund said Library Director Susan Smayda.

“It’s not an unusual or nutty procedure. In fact it’s pretty standard,” Smayda said. “The building is getting older and this is a proactive way to prepare for needs in a tough economy and to do so at no cost to the taxpayer.”

The items de-accessioned will be sold at auction and include several oriental carpets, porcelain, a Western-style bronze statue and other small miscellaneous items, Smayda and Museum Director Marie Secondo said.

Although many of the items could be valuable to antique collectors, they were carefully selected after a detailed review and are not considered of value to the Barnes family personal collection.

Secondo said some of the items, including the carpets to be sold, were among hundreds that the family used everyday but did not consider anything of value and had not documented.

“They kept such detailed records and we are selecting items that aren’t of historical importance to the Bradley Barnes family,” she said. “Care was taken to choose only items that are not mentioned in any of the Barnes Family diaries and that had no significance to the Bradley-Barnes families or the town of Southington.”

Library Board members are now in the process of working alongside Winter Assocaties Inc. Auctioneers and Appraisers of Plainville to determine a value for items selected so that they may be sold at auction.

Smayda said the town has received great support from Linda Stamm, owner of Winter Associates, a company which specializes in the liquidation of fine arts and antiques, and is hopeful that the items sold could turn enough money to not only repair the roof and help pay for exterior painting, but could lead the restoration of the once renowned garden.

Items will be auctioned beginning Monday, May 2, and those interested in seeing the items in advance can do so Sunday, May 1, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Winter Associates, 21 Cooke St. in Plainville or by visiting the Winter Associates catalog online.

“I can’t deny that I’m a little heartbroken to sell these items. The museum has been like my second home,” Secondo said. “If we want this house to be restored to the beauty it was built with and we want to continue to offer this for our grandchildren, then we need to do this now.”