When I looked into deaccessioning a group of taxidermied animals several
years ago, I found out that there's quite a surplus of many of these. No
doubt this will determine the values, depending on the type of animal.

See http://www.taxidermyappraisals.com/ for a list of cost for taxidermy
- part of establishing the value of a mount - and for appraisal info.

See
http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/congress_shoot
s_down_taxidermy.html for some interesting information on a tax scam
involving hunting and taxidermy.

Keep in mind that the movie industry is a big "user" of taxidermy mounts
for props, albeit more as renters than buyers, I can imagine.

Arsenic is an issue to take into consideration, as Joan G. suggested in
her response. See
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:Szw7tkAjxf8J:www.spnhc.org/documents
/CF16/sirois.pdf+arsenic+taxidermy&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=20 for more
info on this.

I can imagine that whether you can sell taxidermy specimens depends on
what animal it is. All kinds of laws apply to this, including Fish and
Wildlife and Endangered Species. Worth looking into this.

Good luck!

Remko Jansonius

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

 

________________________________

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ken Mark
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Deaccession help

 

I am the director of a new museum.  We have 150+ taxidermied animals
that were parts of numerous collections.  We hold title to all of them
and need to deaccession these animals. They do not fit the mission of
our museum and the storage costs are eating us alive.

 

Can anyone help with two questions:

      1.  We want to sell these - Does anyone have suggestions for
auction houses or liquidators we could contact?

 

      2.  How does one come up with a price for each animal?  Some are
CITIES mammals with all of the paper work, etc.  We have the appraised
values from when they were given to the museum.  Is this what we use for
a price?  I need advice so as to get a fair price for the museum and to
be fair to the buyer.

 

Thanks to all who may be able to help with this question.

 

Ken

 

Kenneth D. Mark
Director of the Oakes Museum

 

Messiah College
One College Ave. Box 3029
Grantham, PA 17055

 

Telephone: 717-691-6082
FAX: 717-691-6046
Email: [log in to unmask]

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