The museum where I worked a number of
years ago went one step further and stated that if a museum employee came
across an object that s/he would want for his/her personal collection and it
was within the scope of the museum’s collection, the object would have to
be presented to the museum director first and the director needed to write a
letter stating that the museum was not interested in that object before the
employee could purchase it.
Julia Muney Moore
Public Art Administrator
Blackburn Architects,
(317) 875-5500 x230
From:
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005
10:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: personal collecting
statement
Greetings,
ICOM Code for
Ethics for Museums is online at:
http://icom.museum/ethics_rev_engl.html
It includes the
following:
6.7
Private Collecting
The acquiring, collecting and owning of objects for a personal collection by a
museum professional may not in itself be unethical and may be regarded as a
valuable way of enhancing professional knowledge and judgement. However, no
member of the museum profession should compete with their institution either in
the acquisition of objects or in any personal collecting activity. In some
countries, and in many individual museums, members of the museum profession are
not permitted to have private collections and such rules must be respected.
Where there are no such restrictions, a member of the museum profession with a
private collection should, on appointment, provide the governing body with a
description of the collection and a statement of the extent of the collecting
practised. An agreement between the museum professional and the governing body
concerning the private collection must be formulated and scrupulously followed
(see 8.4).
8.4 Dealing
No member of the museum profession should participate directly or indirectly in
any dealing (buying or selling for profit), in the natural or cultural
heritage. Dealing by museum employees can present serious problems even if
there is no risk of direct conflict with the employing museum and should not be
permitted (see Article 7(5) of the
ICOM Statutes).
Curator of Education
20 South
T 801-328-4201 x 21
F 801-322-4323
W www.slartcenter.org
"There are three kinds of people:
Those who make things happen,
those who watch things happen,
and those who ask, 'What happened?'"
-- Casey Stengel
From:
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005
8:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] personal
collecting statement
We are revising our collections policies, and one part we
are having a lot of concern with is the Personal Collecting statement part of
the Conflict of Interest. If anyone has a good example of one, please send it
along. Thanks.
William Grewe-Mullins
Registrar
(404) 929-6317
(404) 371-8870 fax