We can be talking of several different "values" for objects.

1) There is the value at time of accession (or, the accession value)  This
is the donor stated value which may or may not be backed up by an appraisal
(in the US, if the cummulative gift in a single year is less than $5,000
then no appraisal is necessary for the IRS).

2) There is the appraised value.  This is a value furnished by a bona fide
appraiser.  It can be furnished to the donor.  Unrelated to a current
donation, if the museum wishes to update the values for an object at *any*
point in time, it can get an appraisal.  This is the museum's business
only.

3) There is the insurance value.  This is the value that a museum decides
it's object is worth, this number is generally used as an internal measure
to determine the value of the entire collection.  It does not need to be
substantiated by anyone.  It is generally close to the fairmarket value.
It is often determined by a curator (or other staff member) who is aware of
the market.  This number is generally maintained by the registrar and is
used as the value of the object for insurance purposes.   The insurance
value is often updated prior to a loan when the borrower is going to insure
the object.  Sometimes an appraisal will be sought by a lender before the
lender accepts the borrowers insurance.

4)  There is the fairmarket value.  This is general based recent auction
prices for identical or very closely related materials.

I hope this helps contributes to the discussion in some way... ;-)

Suzanne Quigley
Head Registrar, Collections and Exhibitions
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10128
212 423 3568
fax: 212 423 3650
email: [log in to unmask]