Thank you all for your insightful comments, which I shared with my colleagues.  
After some discussion, we have made it a policy to not accept any money from auction houses as they may become problematic in the future, as many of you have outlined.  Again, thanks so much for your participation in the discussion.  

Emmanuel (Jun) Francisco, Jr.
Director of Collections Management
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Tel.: (216) 515-1237
Fax: (216) 515-1284

Rock & Roll: (noun) African American slang dating back to the early 20th Century. In the early 1950s, the term came to be used to describe a new form of music, steeped in the blues, rhythm & blues, country and gospel. Today, it refers to a wide variety of popular music -- frequently music with an edge and attitude, music with a good beat and --- often --- loud guitars.(c) 2005 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.



 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]  On Behalf Of Jill Chancey
Sent:	Friday, November 17, 2006 10:37 AM
To:	[log in to unmask]
Subject:	Re: [MUSEUM-L] Potential or perceived conflict of interest re loaned object

I would like to add that, for museums in rural areas (like South 
Mississippi), general directions to look online for appraisers, auction 
houses, etc., are not that helpful for one's community members. 
Sotheby's isn't going to sell the kind of low-value things that a 
regional auction house will take, for example. If someone needs 
Mississippiana appraised, well, they need to go to one of two people in 
Jackson, who you will not find on a national website. We maintain a 
listing of art services available within driving distance: conservators, 
appraisers, auction houses, packing & shipping, photographers. The 
listing also includes relevant websites - such as the AIC and the 
National Park Service Conserve-o-Grams. We keep a copy at the front desk 
and mail it to anyone who asks. I originally set up the list so the 
front desk people would stop calling me to deal with the walk-ins 
looking for Antiques Roadshow services ("what is it? how much is it 
worth? wanna buy it?"). Since everybody gets the same list, with 
multiple providers in each category, we are not recommending any one 
service provider.

I can't think of an occasion on which we've been offered a "finder's 
fee," though come to think of it I seem to recall a regional auction 
house buying a museum membership a few years ago, after they auctioned 
the holdings from a local estate. We decided to accept the hundred bucks 
and get on with our lives, since it wasn't tied directly to their 
profits from the estate and the executor had picked the auction house 
off of the list we provide to everyone.

- 
Jill R. Chancey, PhD
Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
PO Box 1108
Laurel, MS 39440
www.LRMA.org
[log in to unmask]



Jansonius, Remko (Vizcaya) wrote:
>
> Jun, I see red flags!
>
> Imagine a bad case scenario where the object auctioned off was stolen 
> many years ago, or it later turns out to be a fake. Your good name 
> will be associated with this deal gone bad, even more so if you have 
> financially benefited from the sale.
>
> I believe it is pretty standard for museums to not refer patrons 
> (lenders, visitors, donors) to third party vendors, whether it's an 
> appraiser, a conservator, or an auction house. What we can do is 
> provide the person with information on how to select an appraiser etc, 
> what to pay attention to during the process, and what to expect. For 
> example, we regularly refer people to the AIC website when they are 
> looking for a conservator. While it sounds like you have done this, 
> keep in mind that the auction house offers a finders fee for a reason: 
> they want more referrals; they want your business! And the sale of 
> objects (whether museum objects or museum-quality objects, real or 
> perceived) is a sensitive issue for museums, and probably better to 
> steer away from. Which makes me wonder also, are there any tax 
> implication for a museum in accepting a finder's fee? I don't know, 
> but can imagine there might be.
>
> An additional conflict, real or perceived, may exist in the fact that 
> by exhibiting loan objects that later will be auctioned off, you might 
> add value, and thus increase the finder's fee; thus the museum has a 
> commercial interest in exhibiting some but not other objects.
>
> It would be good to develop a policy how to NOT become a middleman for 
> the sale of museum objects.
>
> Just some rambling thoughts ...
>
> Remko Jansonius
>
> Collections and Archives Manager
>
> Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
>
 

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