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).