I'm having some trouble with my system so here we go again.
 
> I have to agree and sympathize with John Simmons' position on this
> discussion regarding the pitfalls of valuations, but I would like to
> respond to a few of his comments.
>
> 1) The analogy to art museums being priced out of purchasing on the
> market is apt.  It is unfortunate that this is now happening to
> vertebrate fossils and other natural history specimines, but fashion
> will change and these objects will again be made available to museums.
> (If it is like the art market then it will be as tax receipted gifts
> when the purchaser finds them unsaleable after a period of time.)  It
> might be cold comfort to know, but it is better than no comfort.
>
> 2) History and Art museums/galleries have not aquitted themselves very
> well over the years, but we are getting better.  Deaccessioning and
> disposal practices have improved because aministration and Boards have
> recognized the monitary value of objects. Most museums will not
> acquire any object with an eye to disposing of it in order to
> fundraise (at least in Canada).
>
> 3) An intersting point on sets of things. If the clearly stated
> purpose of the collections is to illustrate the diversity of an object
> type (an egg set to use your example) then you can not dispose of a
> single one without destroying the integrity of the set.  This would be
> the strongest arguement against the type of behaviour you mentioned.
>
> 4) My last comment (for now :-)).  As a collection manager and
> material culturalist I think we need to view natural history
> collections as we do collections of man-made things.  They are
> assembled for a purpose and can tell us as much about who put them
> together as about the specimines themselves.  For example, Darwin's
> beetle collection or Lyell's geological specimines are as much records
> of these men, as they are of the insects or stones they contain.  In
> the same way as archivists preserve the creator's order to better
> understand the mind that created an archival collection, I believe
> natural history collections should also be preserved in total and intact.
>
> Richard Gerrard
>