Our city owns/leases four historic houses and directly operates three of them. The collections of the houses that the City owns are all put under a single decorative arts policy. I think the cap is $1,000,000. I've heard that in some cases, if you have a very valuable item (say its worth over $10K), you may want to separately insure that item. All of our individual pieces are under the $10K mark. In addition, our reproduction furniture and exhibit items (bottles, cups, papers, games) are insured under the same policy as if they were collection items.
The only problem is, we have to provide accurate inventories (simple lists) with the individual item values each year when the policy gets renewed. For several years in a row, our inventory system was very poor and many items did not get covered under the policy. We are in the process of correcting it. I would suggest taking a basic inventory of your collections and their approximate values, if you have information on that from purchase/donor files, and provide that list to your insurance agent. They might be able to give you a better idea of whether or not you're adequately covered.
I believe the buildings themselves are covered under another general policy that provides for replacement or reconstruction of buildings within the City's holdings, historic or not.
Hope that helps.
Meredith
Virginia Beach Historic Houses
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
________________________________
From: Museum discussion list on behalf of Steve and Rhonda Frevert
Sent: Wed 12/13/2006 3:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] insurance for local historical societies
I would be interested in getting examples of what kinds of coverage local and county historical societies have on their sites and collections. Currently we seasonally operate three museums; two are owned by the city, and one by our organization. The contents of the first two buildings are catalogued and minimally insured (one houses the bulk of our collections). The third, a historic house museum, is insured for functional replacement (which would allow us to purchase some other historic house should our current site be destroyed; rebuilding would not be an option). It has $225,000 coverage on the (uncatalogued) contents, which certainly does not reflect their actual value.
How do similar societies prioritize their needs? How do organizations with limited financial resources and extensive collections insure the items in their care (lump sum, appraisal of particular pieces, etc.)? With which insurance companies have you had positive dealings?
Steve Frevert
Secretary, The Des Moines County (IA) Historical Society
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