ABOVE: Turbine Hall, the large entrance/exhibition space at Tate Modern. The Art Newspaper reveals in its latest issue that Tate is actually not, officially and technically speaking, a museum.

The Art Newspaper, which always pulls something crazy and entertaining out of their hat each month, revealed last week that the Tate is not, from a technical standpoint, actually a museum. The iconoclastic institution is not a member of the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council (the MLA), the only only nationally-funded museum in that position.

The odd arrangement is the result of the Tate refusing to accept the MLA guidelines on deaccessioning, or the selling of museum-owned artworks. The MLA states that museums are supposed to give other museums first crack at taking any works that happen to be on their way out of the catalogue. The Tate says it wants to reserve the option of swapping works by living artists for superior works by that same artist if the possibility arises. It’s never been done, but the option is there. Now the MLA is threatening to take Tate off the list of institutions that receive works through the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) program, which allows inheritors to settle tax bills by donating art works to the AIL, which in turn gives them away to member institutions. In other words, membership has its privileges.

LINK: The Art Newspaper > Tate is not a museum