David, you wrote

>> But what if you work in a large museum which collects in many fields?  If carried to its logical conclusion, that dictum would imply that an employee of such a museum couldn't own anything of "museum quality".  My museum collects contemporary clothing and artifacts of popular culture: would a "collecting" prohibition mean I couldn't buy a new suit or a movie poster? <<

YES!  Because the conflict of interests may be on a quite
different level.  Imagine a dealer who regularly sells you movie
posters quite cheaply (forget about the suit for a moment) and
then offers your museum a big (and not so cheap) collection of
"contemporary clothing and artifacts of popular culture"?  You
would like very much to buy that beautiful collection for your
museum and you will eventually do so.  Could you be accused of
favoring this dealer?  How would you defend yourself?

Conflict of interests has to be seen in context  --  looking at
an isolated instance ("my museum doesn't collect posters") will
tend to make it invisible.

Christof Wolters

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