Today New York's Museum of Modern Art copped to having privately sold off a Francis Bacon painting and, more surprisingly, a Picasso landscape.

Deaccessioning — the nice museum term for the dumping of objects from a permanent collection — is generally a pretty scandalous thing in the art world. "[T]here must always be a strong presumption against the disposal of objects," says the International Council of Museums' Code of Ethics. The Times reports MOMA is using the unknown amount of bucks generated "with an eye toward" purchasing needed works, which is hardly the reassuring statement one might like. Furthermore, MOMA's secretive way of conducting its backdoor firesales is, at best, incredibly tacky.
Inside Art [NYT]
Code of Ethics [ICOM]