In a past life, as curator of an historical museum, we insured to "maximum
probable loss." We did a risk management evaluation of our storage and
exhibition spaces evaluating for factors like: what's on exhibit where,
what if the primary storage room went up in smoke, where are the highest
value objects stored? We also evaluated how often we made loans out and
brought loans in.

Then we roughly estimated what it would take to replace and/or conserve
this material and insured that amount.

FYI, the process started when our insurer, a local guy who treated us like
grandma's attic not a museum collection, insisted on an insurance value
for each and every object in the collection. We had an inventory but were
not about to appraise each button hook and flat iron. I switched to a
specalized carrier with strong museum experience. It was cheaper and the
coverage was better. I used Henderson Phillips. They're not the only firm
out there, just the one I used.

There is a lot of good information in the registrar's bible "The New
Museum Registration Methods" available from the AAM bookstore. The RC list
also addresses this topic periodically. Information on the Registrar's
Committee is at: http://www.rcaam.org/

Best,
Diane Gutenkauf
[log in to unmask]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:26:53 -0500, Melissa Smith Levine
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>How do other museum's insure their collections?  How do you provide an
>insurance value for a whole collection for your wall to wall insurance --
I
>assume few if any museums appraise everything.  Contact me on or off
line --
>thanks for your thoughts.
>
>Melissa Smith Levine
>Associate Director, Finance & Administration
>The Wolfsonian - Florida International University
>1001 Washington Avenue
>Miami Beach, Florida 33139
>Tel 305-535-2655
>Fax 305-531-2133
>[log in to unmask]
>

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