We can be talking of several different "values" for objects. 1) There is the value at time of accession (or, the accession value) This is the donor stated value which may or may not be backed up by an appraisal (in the US, if the cummulative gift in a single year is less than $5,000 then no appraisal is necessary for the IRS). 2) There is the appraised value. This is a value furnished by a bona fide appraiser. It can be furnished to the donor. Unrelated to a current donation, if the museum wishes to update the values for an object at *any* point in time, it can get an appraisal. This is the museum's business only. 3) There is the insurance value. This is the value that a museum decides it's object is worth, this number is generally used as an internal measure to determine the value of the entire collection. It does not need to be substantiated by anyone. It is generally close to the fairmarket value. It is often determined by a curator (or other staff member) who is aware of the market. This number is generally maintained by the registrar and is used as the value of the object for insurance purposes. The insurance value is often updated prior to a loan when the borrower is going to insure the object. Sometimes an appraisal will be sought by a lender before the lender accepts the borrowers insurance. 4) There is the fairmarket value. This is general based recent auction prices for identical or very closely related materials. I hope this helps contributes to the discussion in some way... ;-) Suzanne Quigley Head Registrar, Collections and Exhibitions Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1071 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10128 212 423 3568 fax: 212 423 3650 email: [log in to unmask]