The Good Stuff in the Back Room

“We told him he would have to pare down his list, but we are trying to help,” said Elliot Bostwick Davis, chairwoman of the art of the Americas department at the museum. “After all, who knows, he may be the next John Keats.”

Most museums own far more art than they can display. And while they try to accommodate requests from scholars, art-world professionals and families of artists in their collection — and in rare instances, the public — such viewing is made difficult by space, staff and security constraints.