I can share an unfortunate story with the list on this subject. I had it
second hand. Some of the details may be wrong, but overall it's accurate.
 
A palaeontology curator was asked to identify a possible fossil. He gave
an opinion in writing that, while the preservation was poor and no
analytical tests had been made, naked eye examination suggested that it
was fossil bone, possibly dinosaur.
 
This specimen was sold for a reasonable sum of money. His letter was used
as part of the justification of the price of the specimen. Later analysis
by the new owner established that it was *not* fossil bone. The new owner
sued the museum and the curator for providing misleading information. The
court found against the defendants. The judge ruled that when a
professional makes an identification the public is entitled to rely on
it, and that if one is not sure of an ID one should say nothing.
 
It is cases like these that make museums very cautious about making
identifications, and paranoid about making valuations.
 
 
On Thu, 22 Dec 1994, James Murphy wrote:
 
> A friend interested in purchasing an expensive <objet d'art> was recently
> embarrassed by being told "we don't deal with the private sector," when she
> asked a museum curator (a specialist in these particular objects) if he could
> help authenticate the piece.
>
> Would this be a common response among major art museums?  This was not a case
> of asking for an appraisal or any sort of <guarantee> that the piece was
> genuine but simply for an opinion as to whether the item was genuine.  Had my
> friend gone to a librarian, I am sure everything reasonably possible would
 have
> been done to answer her question.  Are museum curators operating with a
> different philosophy?
>
> This is not meant to start a flame but does seem relevant to the recent
> museum/library thread.  In my experience working at a natural history museum
> and more recently at a state historical society, we routinely commented upon
> objects (Yes, this is a Clovis point; no, this is not a trilobite, etc.) and
> viewed it as part of our mission to educate, though we were very careful not
 to
> suggest a monetary value.  And it seems to me that I see art museums
> authenticating paintings all the time, whether in the "private sector" or not.
> What am I missing?
>
> Jim Murphy
> Ohio State University Libraries
> [log in to unmask]
>