Ariz. museum board resigns

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Amid controversy over the selling of artifacts to cover a $1 million deficit, the entire board of trustees and the executive director of the Museum of Northern Arizona resigned.\nFaced with an ultimatum by longtime benefactors to either resign or face a vote of confidence, Director Robert J. Baughman and the board's 16 members quit Friday.\nDenise Colton's grandfather, Harold, founded the museum and pushed for the change.\n"There is an important lesson here to those who stood by and saw drastic changes but did nothing," Colton said.\nThe renowned museum was founded 75 years ago as a repository for southwestern art, Indian\nartifacts and prehistoric objects.\nBaughman's last day is July 27 while the board members' resignations take effect July 26, the same day as the museum's annual meeting.\nA new 20-member board of trustees will be created.\nA slate of new trustee members has already been selected and will run for the vacant slots -- along with four of the 16 resigning board members -- at the annual meeting.\nColton said that with a new board and the hiring of a new director, the museum "has a chance to regain its heritage and its mission."\nMuseum leaders faced criticism after it sold 21 artifacts to raise operating money, closed the nationally acclaimed Geology Department and fired paleontologist David Gillette and his research staff.\nLongtime museum donor Cynthia Perin, of Sedona, was outraged over the sale and also pushed for the leadership change.\nIn her complaint to the American Association of Museums, the artifacts were reported to have been sold to an art dealer in Santa Fe, N.M.\nThe collection, including paintings and Navajo weavings, was dispersed across the country with a Chicago museum, a California art gallery and several private collectors purchasing various items, the complaint said.