As we are all affected by the speed of on-line auctions, have other museums
adopted a policy of purchase levels for the collection? By this I refer to
price levels of objects that curators/directors have the authority to
purchase before it requires the collections committee or board
authorization.  We are considering developing a table of levels that would
range from lower-priced objects purchased with in-house approval to very
expensive objects that would require approval of the full board before
purchasing.  At this point it looks something like this:

LEVELS OF PURCHASING AUTHORITY
Discretionary Purchases - Purchases made and reported to Collections
Committee (ColCom) and Board

        Price of Object         Approval Needed
        Up to $500                      Director
        $501-2,000                      Director, Chair of ColCom
        $2,001 - 5,000                  Director, Chair of ColCom, Chair of Board

Non-discretionary Purchases - ColCom recommends to Board for ratification
before purchase

        Price of Object         Approval Needed
        $5,001 - 150,000                Director, Majority of ColCom
        Over $150,001                   Director, Majority of ColCom, Board


Lin Nelson-Mayson, Curator
Minnesota Museum of American Art
651.292.4370
www.mtn.org/MMAA/

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