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.
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