Although there are many things that SHOULD be in museums, there is nothing
that says they all HAVE to be. It depends upon HOW these items were acquired
and whether or not it was all done LEGALLY. I would hope that the laws of
the various countries have been followed.

For example the Apollo 11 command module was NASA property. If a NASA
official chose to give a souvenir piece to someone (e.g. one of the
astronauts), who are we to say that this individual cannot own or sell it
but must surrender it to the 'state' (i.e. a museum in this case)? If a
technician replaces a faulty valve and keeps the useless faulty valve as a
souvenir is this improper? [This is assuming that NASA does not have a
policy preventing such actions.]

Governments often scrap treasures e.g. famous ships and aircraft. Could one
legally own a piece of the battleship USS Arizona, now a sunken monument at
Pearl Harbour, Hawaii? It is now virtually a sacred site to Americans. If
you tried to take a piece off of it now, you would likely be lynched.
Ironically, virtually everything above the water has been removed and much
of it was scrapped during and after World War II. What if your uncle had
worked in the scrap yard and had saved some pieces?

If an Inuit (Eskimo) found a piece of a crashed Soviet satellite or a
meteorite in Northern Canada and sold it to a visiting collector, must that
collector surrender it to a museum? I think not unless there was a law in
place regarding ownership of such items.

I personally own Bonnie Prince Charlie's razor which has been handed down
through my family since 1746 after the Battle of Culloden in Scotland. I own
Sir Frederick Banting's luggage tag (he was a Canadian doctor who
co-discovered Insulin) that my father obtained in WWII. I own part of the
aircraft that the famous dancer Vernon Castle was killed in during World War
I. I have General Crerar's personal jeep flag as General Officer Commanding
the First Canadian Army 1944-45 which his ADC gave to me. These items MAY
end up in museums some day, but for now I am quite happy to keep them in my
possession.

Private collectors the world over have assembled wonderful collections and
indeed these have been the nuclei for many museums. Just because something
is a treasure, does not mean it cannot be privately owned.

I personally have donated many historic items to the Canadian War Museum and
have assisted this museum to acquire other items of national significance by
encouraging owners to bequeath, donate or to sell the items to this museum.
This was a VOLUNTARY choice on my part and theirs.

Victoria Crosses have a very high market value as they are much sought after
by collectors. The Canadian War Museum has a history of working with
sponsors to purchase Canadian VCs at auction when they come up for sale.
There is also legislation in Canada to help keep items of national
significance in Canada. It gives Canadian museums a fighting chance to work
to keep nationally significant items in Canada for example by requiring and
then delaying export permits, and by capital gains tax exemption incentives.
Our tax laws also offer 100% tax receipts if one is donating items to a
federal museum.

There is the dark side of course as some other readers have pointed out
where high values can encourage looting of archaeological sites and of
fossils for example. Naturally I would not want to see that happen. The
prices can also keep museums out of the market. One should remember however
that in the art world, museums compete with private collectors and still
have wonderful collections. Some museums can improve their whole financial
picture by selling just one painting!

Museums cannot and should not save everything. I believe that collectors are
healthy for our society.

Museums will from time to time deaccession items from their collections. We
Curators are under more and more pressure to do so, and are often told that
public auction is one of the most appropriate methods. If your attitude
(which has good intentions I can see) prevailed, there would be no market
for museum surplus items other than other museums.

Colin Macgregor Stevens,
Curator,
Burnaby Village Museum,
Burnaby, BC, CANADA

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 ===========================================================================
=============
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Indigo Nights
> Sent: August 17, 2000 17:22
...
> Natural History Auction
...
> Featuring a unique collection of gems, minerals,
> amber, fossils, dinosauria, and a large collection of
> exotic meteorities--even a piece of the planet Mars!
>
> Highlights include a 125-pound polished jade boulder,
> a 2.14-carat alexandrite, the skull of a saber-toothed
> tiger, the large foot claw from a Tyrannasaurus Rex, a
> nest of 15 dinosaur eggs, a fuel cell from a fallen
> Russian satellite, and an actual piece of the Apollo
> 11 command module.
...
> It seems very wrong
> for these items to be available and into the hands of
> the general public.  These sound like they truly
> belong in museums, not in the hands of someone who
> might appreciate them, but whose family may have no
> interest and destroy.
>
> They sound to me like they belong to society in
> perpetuity, not to some profiteer.
>
> And I am also concerned that, perhaps, that stolen
> amber that was on list a few months ago, or some other
> museum piece that was taken, could be on this list.
>
> And, if these are deaccessioned pieces by our members
> here, how do you justify not putting them out there
> for other museums?  It feels like a breach of trust.
>
> As I sad, it alarmed me greatly.
> =====
> Indigo Nights
> [log in to unmask]

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