Seems to me that most museums would/should rather have a collections insurance policy which guaranteed a certain amount of $ to pay for conservation, restoration and the like, rather than paying "replacement" value.  You can't replace much of what we hold in museums.  Anyone ever seen a policy which actually does cover conservation treatment after a disaster instead of insuring the collection as if it were a facility you could replace?

This would also eliminate the problem of the "value of the artifact" because one would deal with funding conservation to a limit set by the museum's ability to pay for the insurance rather than deluding ourselves into thinking that we would actually find another set of grandma's wedding dresses when the first round molds in the water after the fire...

Just a thought.

Chris Dill, Superintendent
City of Greeley Museums
919 7th Street
Greeley  CO  80631
T:  (970)350-9217
F:  (970)350-9570
E: [log in to unmask]
www.greeleymuseums.com

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