auction

[Dave Taylor]

I've been waiting for this to happen ever since the Taper collection was removed from the ALPLM back in 2022. It is sad to see 140 artifacts sold away to private buyers, but I can't blame the Foundation for trying to pay off its debt, especially since it no longer has a partner museum to house these objects.

As much as I love the ALPLM as a museum, its leadership is responsible for this. There were many chances to correct the ship and fix the relationship between the museum and the Foundation. But the museum leadership chose instead to cut off their own nose to spite their face, time and time again. These objects would all belong to the people of Illinois right now if it weren't for the idiotic bureaucracy of non-historians in patronage positions. There's a reason so many wonderful historians and archivists have left or been fired from the ALPLM. It breaks my heart.

If anyone wants to read the long story of how we got here, I wrote about the loss of the Taper collection here.