The article addresses the issue of museum storage facilities. Its aim is to highlight some of the consequences of applying the tenets of the “new museology,” which—among other things—advocates enriching exhibitions with works hitherto overlooked. This leads to a shift in the status of objects, both displayed and stored. The holdings kept in art-museum storerooms are presented here as remnants or residues—objects excluded from display, and therefore not forming part of the canon or contributing to narratives about the past. The first part of the article discusses the theoretical framework of the sociology of art. It then sketches the rise of the modern museum, the evolution of its displays, and the necessity of consigning parts of their collections to storage. Next, it describes the issue of museum residues in the context of works being accepted or rejected by museums. Finally, it presents the core propositions of the new museology. The article concludes by emphasizing that museum storage facilities serve as a resource when implementing new museum policies, resulting in objects that were previously rejected shedding their label of residue, which is then applied to items that were formerly celebrated.
