A good place to start is the book "The New Museum Registration Methods" Buck
and Gillmore, editors. It is available from AAM. An entire chapter is devoted
to risk management with a sub section that addresses museum insurance.

You should NOT have to have individual appraisals for every object in
your collection. It helps to understand overall collection values and from
that you can assess your risk of loss, but any good insurer intent on developing
a museum clientele can guide you through this process. Ask about how
to figure "Maximum Probable Loss"  Household type policies
are not appropriate for museum collections.

Some companies that specialize in museum insurance include:
Fine Arts Risk Management, Inc.
 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800
 Arlington, VA 22209
 Ph. (703) 312-6400
 FAX (703) 524-9850

Henderson Phillips Fine Arts
Suite 900, South Bldg
601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington DC 20004
Ph. (800) 871-9991
FAX (202) 20-3071

There are others, this is not meant to be an endorsement of the above.

Also look into the Registrar's Committee <http://www.rcaam.org/> and if
you're not a member. JOIN.

Diane Gutenkauf


On Fri, 25 Jan 2002 10:00:04 -0500, Karen L O'Brien <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>Our museum is looking into getting insurance for its collection. We mostly
>have ethnographic and archaeological materials. Currently, we are flipping
>through auction house catalogues to see if similar collections have been
>sold recently (in the last 10 years) to get an approximation for an
>insurance value (we can not afford to get appraisals for everything). How
>do other museums tackle insurance values? Is there a better way of doing
>this? I have heard about a CD-ROM that has a compilation of catalogues on
>it for rare books that helps to establish prices. Is there something
>similar for ethnographic or archaeological collections.
>
>Thanks in advance for any help.
>
>Karen
>Karen O'Brien
>Collections Manager
>University of Michigan
>Museum of Anthropology
>734.764.6299
>[log in to unmask]
>

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