This reminds me of a situation I ran into in which I had received an object for conservation treatment and after sending the client the proposal they were insisting on knowing the monetary value of thier piece. The object had been on loan to a musuem for an exhibition and had gotten water damaged. I explained to them that professional conservators do do appraisals and I refered them to the ASA (American Society of Appraisers) and I awaited to be contacted by the appraiser to schedule time for them to come by and examine the object. They never called nor came by - but instead wrote the appraisal primarily using my condition report and auction catalogs. The client was terribly upset when they heard this because the appraisers report read as if they had personally examined the object - but also they were probably more upset when the appraisal came in far below the insured value that the museum had placed on the object on loan.

This whole episode struck me as being ethically shady at best.

On the other hand I have worked with appraisers in other situations in which there was a very fruitful dialogue of the conservator and the appraiser in examining the object together.

I would think that a museum would not want to hand out copies of their official records or correspondance in regards to objects that are part of an appraisal (as in this situation) since that information could be drawn into any dispute about the conduct of the appraisal or its results.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California