Brunk Auctions - Museum Booklet

Museum Services +

How Can We

Brunk Auctions is one of the most highly regarded auction houses in the nation.

Proudly located in Asheville, North Carolina, we have been in business for over 40 years.

We have a proven track record of attaining the highest prices for sellers. Our strength lies in our team of experienced specialists and exceptional client service. Numerous monthly auctions reach across categories, regions, and nations. We are on the leading edge of employing technology to connect with new clients, while maintaining the personal relationships that continue to define us.

Help With Your Museum’s Mission?

Are you re-examining an existing collection strategy?

Perhaps there are holdings that no longer support your stated goals.

Are you an institution diversifying the stories you tell?

Art and objects from varied sources can work together to strengthen your narrative and appeal to wider audiences.

Are your stewardship obligations in conflict with your storage capacity?

Many institutions have donations that were accessioned before they understood the long term consequences of these restricted gifts.

Are you strengthening existing holdings?

Selective acquisitions help you build on an area of focus, and deaccessions give you the resources to do so.

A regional American art museum strengthened their holding in modern art by including a multiple created

by Sol LeWitt.

Why Buy?

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Museum Purchase

A chest and its owner are reunited in the same museum collection. When an institution realized that they had a piece of furniture that belonged to the sitter of this painting, we were able to help them reunite these objects and ultimately tell a more nuanced story.

Why Sell?

Are you ready to monetize non-accessioned donations?

A well intentioned donation might not resonate or fit in with other collection objects.

Has the time come to re-evaluate and deaccession?

The current understanding of this process as part of a healthy collections management program is widely accepted.

How Do We Achieve Excellent Results?

Tailored promotion brings attention to your collection Print advertising in trade and collector publications is buttressed by targeted digital promotion and postings on auction aggregators.

Valuable Personal Relationships Collectively, we have hundreds of years building relationships with both buyers and sellers. We have been working with institutions since Brunk Auctions was founded over 40 years ago.

Integrity, Accuracy, and Scholarship These are the hallmarks of a Brunk Auctions partnership.

How do you get started?

If you email consign@brunkauctions.com you will be directed to the right person to help answer questions and provide additional information.

Call 828.254.6846 and ask for Lauren Brunk, Museum Services

Why Brunk Auctions?

If you are a seller: We will walk through the process with you. We provide a single point person for everything from the initial evaluation of a collection, to transportation, cataloging and research, photography, marketing and post sale accounting. We work with seasoned veterans and first time sellers. We have held multi-million dollar auctions that include property from some of the largest institutions in the country and some of the smallest house museums.

If you are a buyer: We can help you find something very specific like a Mexican Campeche chair, or something more general like an important painting by a 19th Century American woman. Our specialist staff is exceptionally qualified and we are very enthusiastic about the work of our colleagues in museums. We would like to do what we can to make you successful in your mission.

Some of our Museum Partners: Ackland Art Museum Arkansas Arts Center Art Institute of Chicago Art Museum of the University of Memphis Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Belle Meade Plantation Bob Jones University Museum Booth Western Art Museum Brooklyn Museum Carnegie Museum The Charleston Museum Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art Chrysler Museum of Art Cleveland Museum of Art Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Columbia Museum of Art Corning Museum of Glass Crystal Bridges Museum of Art Dallas Museum of Art Dayton Art Institute Decorative Arts Trust Detroit Institute of Arts Drayton Hall Frist Center for the Visual Arts Georgia Museum of Art Gibbes Museum of Art Greenville County Museum of Art Hermitage Museum and Gardens Hickory Museum of Art High Museum of Art Historic Charleston Foundation Historic Columbia Foundation Historic Homes Foundation, Inc. Houston Museum of Decorative Arts Hunter Museum of Fine Art Huntington Museum of Art Huntsville Museum of Art Kaufman Americana Foundation Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Knoxville Museum of Art Madison Museum of Fine um of Ceramic Art Art Mashiko MuseMason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art um, USC Memphis McKissick MuseBrooks Museum of Art Mennello Museum of American Folk Art Middleton waukee Art Museum Place House Milolis Institute of Art Museum MinneapMint Museum of Art Mobile Museum of Art Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts Morris Museum of Art Muscarelle Museum of Art Museum of American Cut and seum of Early SouthEngraved Glass Muern Decorative Arts Museum of Fine Arts Boston Museum of Fine Arts Houston Arts, St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Museum of the Shenandoah Valley Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University New Bedford Whaling Museum New-York Historical Society Museum and olina Museum of Art Library North Carof Art Preservation Portland Museum Preservation Society of Charleston Virginia Reynolda House Museum of American Art Shelburne Museum Spelman College Museum of Fine Art St. Louis Art Museum Taubman Museum of Art Tennessee State Museum The Asheville Art Museum The Birmingham Museum of Art The Fisk University Galleries The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens The Kentucky Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Mint Museum The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Speed Art Museum The Virginia Museum of Fine Art The White House and Museum of the Confederacy The Winterthur Museum Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Monticello Thomasville Center for the Arts Tryon Palace Turchin Center for the Visual Arts University of Louisville University of Texas, Austin Vanderbilt University Historical Society Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Washington and Lee University Weatherspoon Art Museum Worcester Art Museum Yale University Art Gallery