On Thu, 19 Oct 1995 10:51:15 -0400,
Adrienne DeArmas  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>In a message dated 95-10-18 15:42:22 EDT, you write:
>
>>using one's own collection to enhance an exhibit
>>(or a resource library) would seem to be beneficial, not detrimental. Am I
>>missing some detail here?
>
>Not really. The ethical dilemma stems from when a curator's personal
>collection surpasses or jeopardizes that of the museum. Objects come up for
>grabs and being in the museum business, we tend to hear about them first. So,
>if a curator purchases the object for his own collection with his credit card
>while the museum board of directors is trying to decide if they should buy it
>and how should they pay for it, then his actions as a collector have impeded
>his ethical responsibility to the institution for whom he works. I've seen a
>great deal of this and it always starts out with "I know someone else will
>get it, so I'll just buy it to be on the safe side and let the museum use
>it...."
>
There is, it seems to me, another dimension of this ethical issue:  Museum
people are in a position to enhance the value of their personal
collections and to distort markets through the actions of their
institutions.  The point is that the decisions they make as museum people
should be, to use an old-fashioned word correctly, disinterested.

Ken Yellis
Assistant Director for Public Programs
Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Avenue
Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
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(203) 432-9891/9816(fax)