Abel,

Professional conservation staff as well as curators in museums are
also often asked to interact and to help cultivate donors to the
institution.

Conservators have a code of ethics and standards of practice that also
prohibit us from acting as dealers or appraisers.

My personal approach was to treat the donor or potential donor as I
would any other interested member of the public. That it is
appropriate to share your knowledge and opinions, so that talking to
them about the scope of their collections and the context of the piece
or artist that they are considering acquiring are all appropriate.
Giving advice as to values or to specific purchases are not. I would
not offer any advise in writing but exchanging information such as
references about the artist or the piece, etc. are fine.

I would not enter into making recommendations for specific purchases
that your director has an interest in acquiring in later years. This
is too close to the ethical edge and conflict of interest, and you and
your institution could be liable if things go wrong.

Collecting is a very personal and subjective activity, so I would
suggest getting to know these donors as people and trying to form an
understanding of what their passions are in collecting and in art. I
think it is always best to interact on friendly terms and to be
helpful but not serve as a proxy employee of the donor.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California USA
>
>
> In a message dated 11/10/2005 12:40:51 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> To my colleagues,
>
> I am a young curator working in a well-known art museum in a large U.S. city
> that maintains a growing collection of a fairly specific group of modern and
> contemporary artists. Recently I have been asked by the director of our
> institution to provide professional advice to certain of its patrons on what
> offerings made at the major auction houses might make good purchases for
> their private collections. Apparently the rationale for giving this help is
> that such purchases could perhaps eventually find their way into our
> institution's collection through the patrons' possible donations at some
> future time.
>
> While I understand that this possibility exists, I still wonder if providing
> such consultations is fully ethical. For instance, if a private patron is
> making tax-exempt donations to our institution and recieves "financial"
> advice in return, is this appropriate? Also, the museum I work for is very
> influential, so doesn't this kind of exchange with a private art collector
> encourage us to nuture our relationship with these patrons by highlighting
> and featuring the works of those same certain artists in their private
> collections, thus supporting and perhaps increasing their monetary value --
> and enriching the donors financially?
>
> I am new on the job, and find this issue confusing. My director says that
> "all museum curators do this." I have consulted the A.A.M. code of ethics
> webpage on "Guidelines for Museums on Developing and Managing Individual
> Donor Support," and this issue is not addressed. I wonder if anyone has any
> knowledge of how such issues are regarded ethically in the profession? Am I
> naive to question this?
>
> I would prefer to keep my institution's name anonynmous, and I hope I may
> ask this question in a discreet manner.
>
> Thanks for any help and advice,
>
> A.B.
>
>
>
>
> Pamela Silvestri, Museum Assistant
> Northeast States Civilian Conservation Corps Museum
> Shenipsit State Forest
> 166 Chestnut Hill Road
> Stafford Springs, Connecticut 06076
> Telephone: (860) 684-3430
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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