Hello fellow listers.  Just wondered if someone could shed some light on
the following situation.  We're one of those non-collecting, non-profit,
educational exhibition spaces (btw, we're called a gallery, not a museum),
which has successfully negotiated loans from major museums in the U.S. and
Europe.  We adhere to high standards of museum climate control, security,
and light level requirements.  We are in the midst of working out the
details of a loan of late 19th-early 20th-c. textiles from a museum in
France.  All was proceeding smoothly until they asked us to have our
insurance company add a clause stating that the items would be insured
against the depredations of mites, parasites, and rodents.  Our insurance
company (a well-respected U.S. fine arts insuror) refused, saying, in
effect, that that would be much the same as buying flood insurance for a
house perched on a riverbank.  We have decided 1.) to request that the
museum send a conservator-signed document certifying that the textiles are
free of pests when they leave France, and 2) we will take the risk of
self-insuring (the total insurance value is not astronomical).  We may also
(under the guidance of a local conservator), put the textiles in the
freezer for a few days before we return them to France after the show.

Does anyone have any comments, ideas, etc?  Are other options available?
Was this a reasonable request on the part of the lending instutution?
Anyone face a similar situation?  Please reply off-list, unless you think
it might be of interest to the others.  Many thanks!

Lucia Dorsey
Coordinator
Arthur Ross Gallery
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
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Lucia I. Dorsey
Coordinator
Arthur Ross Gallery
University of Pennsylvania
220 South 34th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6380
TEL: (215) 898-4401
FAX: (215) 573-2045