Candace,

As a fine-arts insurance professional, before an item can be insured the value must be determined either with the information supplied on the invoice from the gallery where the artwork was purchased or auction invoice.  It may be necessary to have your collection appraised by a certificate appraiser, dealer or art historican in order to determine the value of your collection. Basically, without exception, works of art cannot be insured unless value has been determined by an acceptable source.

I hope this provides you with some insight.

With kind regards, 

Lynette Johnson, M.A.

>From: Candace Perry <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Insuring the irreplaceable
>Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 16:17:03 -0500
>
>I'm having a problem with this.  How do you insure objects that are
>irreplaceable?  And how can they even be valued properly, when they are
>most probably unique and there are no comparables?
>If the object is stolen, goes missing, or burns up in a fire no big pot of
>money is going to bring it back (a good part of our collection is this way!)
>I'm really torn.  Insuring for damage, particularly when we lend to small
>museums who can't carry large insurance costs but have excellent
>professional practices, seems like a better way to go. Thoughts,
>suggestions, help?
>Candace Perry
>
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