The Association of Art Museum Directors has suspended punishing sanctions on the National Academy Museum & School in New York City. An important repository of American art, the academy was barred from loans and other collaborative programs with association members.

Sanctions were imposed in 2008 after a public uproar erupted over the de-accessioning of two 19th-century landscapes from the academy's collection of more than 7,000 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures by American artists and architects.

Frederic Edwin Church’s 1854 oil “Scene on the Magdalene” and Sanford Robinson Gifford’s “Mount Mansfield, Vermont,” from 1859, were sold for a combined $13.5 million to cover operating expenses. Works by John White Alexander and Robert Blum were marked to be sold as well, according to the New York Times.

Carmine Branagan, Director of the National Academy, said in a statement: "While it has been painful to operate under sanctions, we were compelled to confront and to address important challenges, and we are now unreservedly committed to never deaccessioning works from the collection for operating support or capital projects."

The gorgeous Beaux-Arts museum that houses the National Academy's collections will reopen in September 2011 following renovations.

Founded in 1825, the National Academy integrates a museum, art school, and association of artists and architects. The institution has a lasting legacy of promoting American artists and forging a national cultural identity.

The American Art Fair debuted in 2008 as a fundraiser for the National Academy. Admission is free for this year's fair, which is scheduled for Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 2010. The prominent American art dealers who participate in the fair donate a portion of their sale proceeds to the academy.