Jason Aikens, from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, asked:
> I was wondering if any museum professionals out there could share their
> policies on storing artifacts in a safe.  At my institution we store
> several
> valuable coins, rings and documents in a safe but I wonder how prudent it
> is do so.  We already have an alarm system for our storage area therefore
> security is not issue.
>
I am sure that Steve Keller, the security maven, will weigh in, but the
short answer is this:  a depressing 90% of museum thefts (the latest
statistic I have seen) are inside jobs.  Museums will often provide
additional security within secure storage areas for high-value or rare
collections to forestall the possibility that staff who should not be
mucking with those collections might take an opportunity to pocket
something.  It is common, for instance, to put coins, paper money, or
valuable jewelry in a locked "safe" in a locked storage area.

Your security policy should dictate who has unescorted access to your
storage areas and who must be escorted.  You should also establish a
reasonable policy on high-value collections, and provide additional security
for them.  It would be typical for only the curator (or collections manager)
and the director to have the key/combination to a high-security vault.

It is not as redundant as it seems.

Claudia Nicholson
Curator
Museum Collections Department
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd. W.
St. Paul, MN  55102-1906
  e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
  Phone:  651-297-7442
  FAX:  651-297-2967

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).