MoMA to deaccession its photography collection

In a move that smaller museums are likely to watch closely, the Museum of Modern Art announced today that it is digitizing its photography collection to reduce storage and conservation costs associated with maintaining fragile photographs on paper.

Sensitive to concerns about glutting the photography market, the Museum will be auctioning only the most valuable works in its collection. The rest of the Museum's photography collection will be given away as membership "premiums" to those who sign up for MoMA's new Photography Membership Program. For the lowest level membership, $150, you get a small b/w photograph of the museum's choosing. Prices -- and presumably quality -- go up from there; the top level membership is $10,000.

Details -- and info on how to sign up for the Photography Membership Program -- are here.

UPDATE: Please don't pester the nice people at MoMA. This was my April Fool's.

Photo: Edward Steichen's vintage photograph "Heavy Roses."