As I understand it: 1. Get an insurance agent that deals with fine arts coverage 2. Do a "best guess" on your top 10% or top 25 items (talk to insurance agent about what he recommends) 3. You can then extrapolate to insure for less than what you project your entire collection is worth but an insurance agent can explain this better than I can. There are ways - and the right agent will know them - for insuring a collection that doesn't require that everything be appraised. Values change over time. Insurance agents are used to this. Your inventory will make it possible to tell what is lost/damaged during any event. Item-by-item valuation can be done at that time. Disclaimer: my opinion, not necessarily shared by my employer (National Archives & Records Administration) nor the U.S. Federal Government of which NARA is a part. >>> [log in to unmask] 6/10/2010 9:31 AM >>> We recently had this discussion with our board. Unless you have an inventory with accompanying appraised values for your collection, how would an insurance company know what it is you lost and/or how much it was worth? Unless you have very valuable individual items, a lot of small historical societies can not afford that kind of insurance. General property/building liability, absolutely. ________________________________ From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of REYNOLDS, Trevor Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 4:10 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] appraisal? If the collection is insured then it would probably make sense to have an insurance valuation. If not I wouldn't think it was worth the effort. Trevor Reynolds Collections Registrar, English Heritage 37 Tanner Row, York, YO1 6WP tel: 01904 601905 ________________________________ From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of William Freil Sent: 09 June 2010 21:46 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: appraisal? Hi gang, I'm the new Collections Manager at a small historical society in Western PA. The collection has never been catalogued until now, but I have some volunteers asking me if we have should get an appraisal done on the collection? It doesn't seem to make much sense to have it done yet. What is the best course of action? How would you handle telling the volunteer and/or the appraiser (who is also a volunteer)? Sincerely, William A. Freil Collections Manager Greene County Historical Society 416 Rolling Meadows Road Waynesburg, PA 15320 ========================================================= 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] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= 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] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= 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] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= 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] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).