Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer and Princess Thi-Nga at a gala dinner.

The Bass Museum has received a letter from the American Association of Museums that gives the Bass 30 days to answer allegations of improper ethics surrounding its exhibition The Jade Collection of HIH Princess Thi-Nga of Vietnam, or face being put on probation.

Though the AAM is questioning the Bass, that does not mean the museum has necessarily done anything wrong.

“It is standard procedure that if the accreditation commission receives a formal complaint, they will ask the museum to address it in a given amount of time,” the AAM’s Media & Communications coordinator, Anna McAlpine, wrote the SunPost.

The letter was received by the Bass Museum on June 1. The museum has just over a week left to respond.

Founded in 1906, the AAM has more than 3,000 member museums, including famed institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Thus continues a buzz about the Bass’ ethics that has been touched on in the SunPost, New Times and the Miami Herald.

The inquiry was sparked by freelance art journalist Justo Sanchez. One week after a May 31 SunPost cover story on Camber’s retirement amid Sanchez’s questions, New Times called Sanchez “the Miami art world’s newest — and possibly only — gadfly.”

Sanchez asserts that because Princess Thi-Nga is chair of the board of trustees, and president of the Friends of the Bass Museum, showing her collection was a conflict of interest. He also questions the provenance of the collection, which was on view from February through April, and goes so far as to claim Thi-Nga’s title of princess is fraudulent.

“She is not an imperial princess since HIH Crown Prince Bao Long is the head of the Nguyen Dynasty and she is not directly related to him,” Sanchez wrote in his complaint to the AAM. The AAM is not raising issue with Princess Thi-Nga’s lineage.

“Such a question has never been posed throughout my life, as my name/title in Vietnamese is self-explanatory,” Thi-Nga wrote the SunPost. “I don’t believe such a question should even be dignified with an answer.”

Though Sanchez says his motivation for questioning the Bass Museum’s ethics is purely to protect the public interest, outgoing director Diane Camber said she believes it stems from, among other things, simple resentment. Camber recently announced her retirement after more than 26 years of service to the Bass. She said Sanchez’s complaints against the museum began within weeks of Nora Bulnes, publisher of the Coral Gables-based Selecta Magazine, being named honorary board member to the Bass Museum. Sanchez worked for Selecta when the magazine began in the early ’80s. His employment was terminated after less than a year.

As evidence, Camber forwarded to the SunPost the following e-mail Sanchez sent to her and various Miami Beach officials on March 17.

“I have kept track of the publication [Selecta] and I know its publisher,” wrote Sanchez. “It all leads me to question if Ms. Bulnes’ command of the English language would qualify her to serve the Bass Museum and the City of Miami Beach in a place where art programming choices are discussed.”

Sanchez stands behind his statements, and said in reality his inquiry into the Bass began in early February after he learned of the jade exhibit.

Camber also suggested Sanchez is trying to gain financially from attacking the Bass.

“Mr. Sanchez has been seen guiding one or more neophyte collectors through art fairs,” Camber wrote the SunPost. “Since he has no established record as an art expert, he may be trying to validate himself with collectors and dealers by getting his name in the papers through his campaign against the Bass Museum.”

Whatever Sanchez’s motivation, his questions prompted the AAM to ask the Bass to demonstrate that it followed both the AAM’s Guidelines on Exhibiting Borrowed Objects as well as its own internal policies “related to exhibits, borrowed objects, or conflict of interest” in relation to the jade collection exhibit. The AAM is also requiring the Bass to demonstrate that it “made accurate representations concerning disbursement of funds collected in conjunction with the exhibit.”

“I studied Asian Art at Barnard and Columbia University,” Camber wrote the SunPost. “I have more than 30 years of experience working with Asian collections in this and other museums. Over the past 26 years I have tripled the size of the Bass Museum’s Asian holdings and overseen the mounting of various exhibitions from this body of work.”

As far as disbursement of funds, Camber maintains everything was handled above-board and with the utmost professionalism.

“Mr. Sanchez insinuates that the Museum collected money on behalf of UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] in conjunction with a gala dinner with no intention of providing money to the organization,” Camber wrote the SunPost. “This is patently false.” The gala collected net revenues of $45,000, $4,500 of which was disbursed to the UNESCO office in New York, Camber stated.

If the Bass Museum cannot sufficiently answer the AAM’s query by the end of June, the museum risks having its accreditation put on probation. The AAM’s Web site defines accreditation as “a widely recognized seal of approval that brings national recognition to American museums, regardless of their size or location.” The Bass Museum was first accredited in 1985, and reaccredited in 2004.

McAlpine could not speak in detail about the Bass case, but said a museum doesn’t lose its accreditation during a probationary period. She wrote, “Being on probation means that the Accreditation Commission has found that an accredited museum has failed to meet some aspect of accreditation standards or eligibility requirements, and has given the museum a fixed amount of time in which to come back into compliance.”

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com.