I would be interested to hear from any museums (particualrly UK and
non-National) how they provide insurance cover for their collections.
We at present have an all-risks policy, however it is becoming
increasingly expensive to maintain this cover for the complete collections.

On a similar topic, any idea how to value and provide insurance cover
on a large collection of over 100,000 photographic negatives?

Any advice would be most helpful.

  --
 Tommy Watt
 Shetland Museum
 01595 695 057

Tommy,
Not knowing the type of your building or its fire rating my reply may not be
useful.  We have developed an insurance program which covers all liabilities
for operations and provides limited coverage for the collections.

Our collections are composed of historical objects with provenience.  For
that reason the opportunity to replace those objects is, in reality quite
limited.  For this reason we carry insurance at a level to mitigate heavy
loss, not to cover total loss.  Our collections on the market may be worth 4
times the amount for which they are covered.  It is better to save on
insurance cost and have dollars for conservation.  That is work to cover
ongoing loss which is known as a result of time and conditions as opposed to
covering for possible loss of the entire collection.

Hope this helps.
Greg  Koos
McLean County Historical Society
Bloomington Il