Museum collections in New York are held in trust for the public, and managed by trustees and directors of institutions as fiduciaries for the public. Besides all the other conflicts involved, the situation described would not be legal in any New York museum chartered by the Board of Regents. The Attorney General has jurisdiction over those remaining museums formed by Legislative charter or Department of State incorporation.
The Regents in 1998 adopted a Rule (a regulation having the force of law) as to use of proceeds from deaccessioning of any object or collection. Hiring a person to catalog is not viewed as direct care of collections. A museum may apply to the Regents for an exception, say, for cataloging, hiring a curator, publishing a catalog, etc., which would be considered but only granted if all other collections needs were taken care of. So far, no one has applied.
The Regents Rule on use of proceeds from deaccessions is based on the ethical codes of several organizations such as AAM and AASLH. The full Rule is on our web site. A similar Rule (3.30) covers historical societies.
From, Rules of the Regents 3.27 (f) (7):
Proceeds derived from the deaccessioning of any property from the collection of a museum shall be placed either in a temporarily restricted fund to be used only for the acquisition, preservation, protection or care of collections, or in a permanently restricted fund the earnings of which shall be used only for the acquisition, preservation, protection or care of collections. In no event shall proceeds derived from the deaccessioning of any property from the collection be used for purposes other than the acquisition, preservation, protection or care of collections. A museum wishing to apply all or any part of such proceeds to any other purpose may apply to the Regents for an exception, which the Regents may grant if in their judgment the exception will benefit the museum's mission, the collection or the public, and if the Regents further determine that the museum has adopted a collection management policy that otherwise complies with the provisions of this subdivision.
David W. Palmquist
Head, Chartering Program
NY State Museum
State Education Department
3090 Cultural Education Center
Albany NY 12230
518-473-3131
FAX 518-473-8496
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web site: www.nysm.nysed.gov/charter/
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/27/00 11:21AM >>>
Suppose, hypothetically, that there was a director at a hypothetical small,
up-and-coming museum who had just hired a person to enter collections
information into our, ahem, THEIR new PastPerfect database.
Suppose that new person was being paid about two thirds the going rate for
such a position, but that she had negotiated a deal into her contract that
allows her to be paid with items from the museum's collection, in addition
to her paycheck. For example, let's suppose she collects military uniforms,
and that the museum has many duplicates in its uniform collection.
She negotiated this arrangement with the director, who has no museum
background and no knowledge of collections management. There are no other
paid staff in the collections/exhibits realm, but there is a half-time,
volunteer Exhibits/Collections Manager with nominal responsibility. He has
some museum background (mostly exhibits), and sees this as a blatant
conflict of interest.
He's expected to review and approve each item that the data-entry/registrar
would like to deaccession and take home, but doesn't have the detailed
knowledge of uniforms that she has as a collector. Her contract doesn't
specify any objective way of determining the value or exchange rate for the
uniforms. Essentially, she decides what is surplus in the collection,
determines its value, etc.
Now, the Exhibits/Collections Manager could conceivably research each item
to determine its real value, but I, ahem, HE is already swamped with other
urgent museum work, essentially performing a full-time job in 20 hours a
week. (He still works full time elsewhere.) He's also appalled at the idea
of paying the staff with items from the collection.
I hear you all asking, where is the collections policy? Where are the
professional standards? Don't they know that items in the collection are to
remain in the public trust?
Well, the Exhibits/Collections Manager knows, and one of those urgent tasks
is the writing of a collections policy. But such policies have existed in
the past, and have generally been ignored by the director and board. (Their
hearts are in the right place, but IMHO they tend to view all this formal
museum crap as a hindrance to their agenda.)
What should that hypothetical Exhibits/Collections Manager do, under the
(purely hypothetical) circumstances? He's most interested in correcting the
problem, but at the very least would like to cover his hypothetical
backside.
Surely some of you have been in similar situations. What did you do? Sure,
I'd love to hear success stories, but I'd like to hear about the pitfalls
and failures, too. I need to know what NOT to do as well as what I should
do.
Thank you for your advice!
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