Here's another angle to look at in this situation - Someone brings you an item. They "know" it is extremely valuable. They want the museum (you) to put your seal of approval on this thing and tell them it's real. They are not even asking for a value but an authentication. After due diligence and thoughtful research, you come to the conclusion the item is not real, a fake, a reproduction, etc. You write them a very nice and apologetic letter telling them this. The owner is very unhappy. Their very "expensive" item is now worthless. You have just cost them a lot of money - at least in their minds. They sue you and the museum. They probably will lose but both you and the museum will have spent a great deal of money defending yourselves. Unfortunately, the US is a very litigious country and everyone needs to be careful when dealing with authentications. Perhaps this is more common in art museums but every art museum I've worked at has a policy which forbids authentications because of the above risk. I know a curator who has gone through the above scenario so it is not out of the realm of possibility. -Michelle Michelle Gallagher Roberts Chief Registrar New Mexico Museum of Art (formerly Museum of Fine Arts) 107 West Palace Avenue Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-476-5066 phone 505-476-5076 fax [log in to unmask] _________________________________________________________________ http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=hmtextlinkjuly07 ========================================================= 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).