I am an appraiser and have appraised natural history specimens.

Your Victorian parlor decoration of birds undoubtedly contains birds that
are now illegal to possibly own or definitely to sell.  Because they were
stuffed and mounted before the enactment of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
(may not be the exact name of the act) is a good thing since it may be
considered "pre-act" which should allow you to own it.  Also, that fact that
you are a museum should help if it is illegal to own it.  Some species can
be held, even though illegal to own, by specific non profits.  I think the
state or feds writes permits for their places in public collections.

 Your state laws (Fish and Game) my supercede the Federal laws (National
Fish and Wildlife Service). You may want to contact them to understand the
status of your bird tableau.

Now, on to the matter of placing an insurance replacement value on the item.
The appraiser must find -- at the dealer, not auction level -- a similar
grouping recently sold.  Many dealers don't understand that it is illegal to
sell these and may be offering them in a venue easily researched by the
appraiser.  I often worry about placing values on endangered species since
at some level, if they can't be replaced legally, is their insurance a moot
point?  At one of our appraisal annual conferences a team of Fish and
Wildlife agents told us that they use "black market" values for endangered
species specimens when they require valuation.  The black market isn't easy
to find, thankfully your challenge is birds, not northern rhinos!

As you can see, this is a very complicate issue.  If you want to call and
discuss it with me I would be happy to tell you what I know and have done in
the past for complicated appraisals.

Sara Conklin, ISA CAPP
800-464-4208

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