A museum I formerly worked at got into some serious trouble
after a dumpster diver found something accidentally thrown
into the trash. No one could account for how it ended up in
the trash and the dumpster diver took it all the way to the
county commissioners as a protest of how museum items were
being treated at this particular institution. It all
happened just before I was hired but it blemished the
institution, and from then on, anything resembling an
artifact  was taken off site to be destroyed so that the
association with the museum was not made. 

That's an extreme situation, but things like that happen. My
policy has always been to find artifacts a good home in
another institution, if possible. In the rare instances
where this is not possible and the objects should be
destroyed, I always take them off site of the museum and do
it, just to avoid any possible issue the public may have if
the item is "found." Can someone go through my trash at home
as it sits on the curb? Sure, but the link to the museum and
where the items came from won't be made that way. It just
seems like good policy to avoid the appearance to the public
that anything unethical is going on inside the museum. As
museum people, we know why we're doing the things that we
do, but the public may not. I've always tried to be cautious
about things like that when an object can't be placed in a
good home. 

Cathy Osterman
Curator of Collections
CFD Old West Museum
Cheyenne, WY   

 



----- Original Message -----
From: Deb Fuller <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Strange situation
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 09:25:49 -0500

> Dangit. My laptop went wiggy and sent the message before I
> was finished.
> 
> On 11/1/06, Reine Hauser <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > Can you arrange for other volunteer duties for this
> > volunteer that do not permit him access to the trash, or
> > other areas that may be problematic? Such as staffing a
> > booth at a community fair or festivals outside the
> museum itself, that promote the institution, or something
> like that?
> 
> As the old saying goes, "one man's trash...."
> 
> Personally, I think if you throw stuff away in the trash,
> you have no right to tell people not to take it. You have
> clearly demonstrated that you do not want said items,
> regardless of their value. Putting them into a trash bin
> to be dumped at a public dumpster is a pretty clear signal
> that the items are fair game. It is a far cry from putting
> them in a bin to be shredded or a burn bag for classified
> materials.
> 
> And I think legally, if the trash is on a public street or
> if someone has legal access to it (like a museum volunteer
> who is allowed to go "behind the scenes") you have no
> right to restrict people from your trash bins. If they
> were locked away or on your property and someone
> trespassed to get to it, that's a different story. Or at
> least that is what I have gathered from watching countless
> episodes of Law & Order. :)
> 
> Now donating them to another museum is a little weird but
> if I was a volunteer and not a museum professional and saw
> some "art" tossed in a trash bin behind a museum, I'd
> probably be tempted to rescue them and find them a good
> home. Thus I'd give the volunteer the benefit of the doubt
> and explain the museum policies to him.
> 
> He did donate it to another museum instead of trying to
> hawk it on eBay so it seems like he was genuinely trying
> to find the art a good home and not trying to make a buck
> off of it. It also sounds like the museum in question was
> a little careless in tossing out deaccessioned materials.
> Perhaps next time, the curators could show the volunteers
> the materials and ask if anyone wants it before it is
> chucked in the bin or at least mangle the art ifacts
> enough so that people won't want to fish them out of the
> trash.
> 
> deb
> 
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