De visitus non est disputandum: How Visitors to Public Museums Cluster Towards Deaccessioning

Deaccessioning, which has been introduced in European museums only recently, is one of the most controversial practices in museum management. The debate on deaccessioning policies is typically accompanied by polemics on the propriety of disposal of museum items, especially those in public collections. Although deaccessioning has received increasing attention in the literature in the past few decades as a solution to museums' financial constraints, its implications have rarely been researched. This analysis is based on 310 questionnaires (22 attitudinal items rated on a five-point Likert scale). Using cluster analysis, the authors present the profiles of Italian public museum visitors according to their attitudes towards deaccessioning. The resulting clusters show that heterogeneity between visitors is not mediated by sociodemographic variables. The article concludes with a brief reflection on the present study and its managerial implications.