Amy,

If your museum is in a not-for-profit, it would seem to me to be unwise if
not illegal to use funds derived from deaccessioned artifacts to pay for
conservation of a loaned item.

The rationale: funds from the deaccession represent held-in-trust public
funds (funds in the public sector from the IRS perspective) because they
were exchanged for items in the public sector.  The item to be conserved, on
the other hand, represents value that belongs to the private sector and
since conservation would enhance its value, you would be essentially giving
the museum's assets to the owner/lender. In other words, since you can't use
public sector funds to benefit an individual in the private sector, that
would preclude doing conservation on a loaned item with deaccession funds.

For a real life example: in my first weeks as new director of a museum, an
individual came to retrieve a loan. It emerged that only a few months before
my predecessor had had the item (an antique musical instrument) fully
restored, at some expense. So, in effect, the lender/owner just walked of
with our museum's money.

Lucy Sperlin
Chico, CA



-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Amy Bischof
Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 6:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: loan and maintenance questions

Actually, my original question had nothing to do with permission or long
term loans.  We renew this loan every 2 years so as to keep in contact
with the lenders, and I would never try to conserve loaned objects
without contacting the lender first.  I really want to know how people
feel about using a deaccession fund to pay for conservation work on
loaned objects.  I'm uncomfortable with the idea, but my board would
like to do this.
Thanks,
Amy

Amy L. Bischof
Curator
Hershey Museum
170 W. Hersheypark Drive
Hershey, PA 17033
Phone: 717-520-5591
Fax: 717-534-8940
[log in to unmask]
www.hersheymuseum.org

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