Julia, I totally agree. Legal ramifications could fall back on the museum, if a staff member states something, and the private collector takes the advise, and it goes bad. It is just like a curator saying your artifact and/or work of art is worth "X" amount of dollars. It is a "no-no," as is saying "that is a good buy," the piece turns out to be a fake, and they come back at you or your museum to recover their cost/expenses. I would stay clear out of providing that advise and/or personal speculation. I know some museums have an Appraiser Day or such, where appraisers come in and for a small fee, they appraise objects or could provide such questions. They are popular (are they stealing the glory of "Antique Road show"!!) My! John Boise, ID >>> [log in to unmask] 11/10/2005 10:46:35 AM >>> When I was a curator I was always told that as a curator, my advice to private collectors should be limited to aesthetic and connoisseurship matters rather than financial. So, you can provide background on the artist and help the collector fine-tune their awareness of style, technique, etc. and comparing one work to another on those grounds, but you cannot advise them on whether the acquisition is a good buy for the money. Julia Muney Moore Public Art Administrator Blackburn Architects, Indianapolis, IN (317) 875-5500 x230 -----Original Message----- From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Abel Baker Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 12:39 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Curator/Donor Ethics To my colleagues, I am a young curator working in a well-known art museum in a large U.S. city that maintains a growing collection of a fairly specific group of modern and contemporary artists. Recently I have been asked by the director of our institution to provide professional advice to certain of its patrons on what offerings made at the major auction houses might make good purchases for their private collections. Apparently the rationale for giving this help is that such purchases could perhaps eventually find their way into our institution's collection through the patrons' possible donations at some future time. While I understand that this possibility exists, I still wonder if providing such consultations is fully ethical. For instance, if a private patron is making tax-exempt donations to our institution and recieves "financial" advice in return, is this appropriate? Also, the museum I work for is very influential, so doesn't this kind of exchange with a private art collector encourage us to nuture our relationship with these patrons by highlighting and featuring the works of those same certain artists in their private collections, thus supporting and perhaps increasing their monetary value -- and enriching the donors financially? I am new on the job, and find this issue confusing. My director says that "all museum curators do this." I have consulted the A.A.M. code of ethics webpage on "Guidelines for Museums on Developing and Managing Individual Donor Support," and this issue is not addressed. I wonder if anyone has any knowledge of how such issues are regarded ethically in the profession? Am I naive to question this? I would prefer to keep my institution's name anonynmous, and I hope I may ask this question in a discreet manner. Thanks for any help and advice, A.B. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/ ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . 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