When I worked at the Met in NY, it was the same policy for all staff, no
matter how lowly you were. If you wanted to acquire something for your
personal collection, you had to have it approved by someone, but I don't
remember who it was. That way, the curators won't be using their connections
to build their own collections at the expense of the museum's. There is also
the issue of deaccessioning objects, which are then bought by staff for
their personal collections- check the Museum-L archives as I remember it was
a hot topic last winter.

The big issues of board members collecting is if they then try to sell their
collection to the museum- than that is a conflict of interest. Or of course
if the trustee uses their position with the museum to ease the purchase-
such as an artist selling a painting at a lower rate with the promise that
they will help the artist within the museum. But otherwise I have never
heard of a policy.

Pamela Feltus
Curator
National Museum of American Jewish Military History
1811 R Street NW, Washington DC 20009
202-265-6280 x201

www.nmajmh.org


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christian Carr [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 3:45 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Policies on Personal Collecting
>
>
> When I was at the National Gallery I don't believe there were any
> restrictions on board collecting--after all, it was hoped
> that in due course
> the members' collections would make their way to the Gallery.  The
> restrictions were actually placed on curators (and other
> staff members, I
> would suppose) instead--anything they were considering adding to their
> collections had to be offered to the museum first.  This
> included gifts of
> work from artists as well.  Sorry I can't provide an example
> of the policy,
> but you get the idea.
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain
> detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a
> one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The
> body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line
> e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of
> the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).