I.  INTRODUCTION The recent economic crisis that downed banks and other industry players did not leave the art world untouched.  Newspapers report that financially strained museums are resorting to the sale of artwork in order to remain viable.[1] One high-profile case centers on the Rose Museum at Brandeis University in Massachusetts.[2] Another case, although not initially due to the recession, focuses on the Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University in Tennessee.[3] These examples raise recurring questions about the extent of donor control over gifts and benefited institutions.  Given the restricted status of many donated works, is a museum’s decision to sell art barred by donor intent?  Would the recession count as an event “impracticable” or “impossible” enough to justify a departure from donor intent? This Note explores these issues in the context of the Rose Museum and the Stieglitz Collection and suggests that courts should take the state of the economy into account when deciding whether to override donor intent to allow deaccession, or the sale of art.  Judicial recognition of the financial difficulty facing museums may in turn lessen the legislative desire to interfere, à la New York state bill A06959, in a field that is properly self-regulatory. II.  THE [read more]