Should you donate your collection to a museum? Item Number: 100016 $0.00

DescriptionI don’t know about you, but I LOVE museums! I spend a great deal of my time seeking out any and every museum I can, especially if it has a decent collection of ancient art. This strange occupation of mine has allowed me the opportunity to see many of the best museums in the world, including The Louvre, The Met, British Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Getty Villa (what a treasure!), The National Museum in Athens, The Vatican Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, plus many smaller, yet fabulous, museums in cities like Houston, Cleveland, Tampa, LA, Denver, Frankfurt, Cologne, Heraklion, Lima (Peru, not Ohio), etc. When I am on a buying trip (pretty frequently as of late) I try to find time to stop in and see the closest art museum.

The funny thing with me and art museums is they hit me differently today than they did 30 years ago. Today, I look at the exhibits and either say - “Wow, what an amazing piece of art. Wonder what that’s worth?” - or - “Gee, I had something just like that last year. I wonder if I sold it too cheap!” Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the art itself, I really do. But it kind of reminds me of when I would go to antique stores with my folks when I was younger. Mom and dad were always saying things like – “my parents had that when I was a kid. Should have kept it…”

Museums are great. You get to see the best of the best, you can learn a great deal about the many ancient cultures (including what makes for an exceptional example of ancient art), even things like how to properly protect and display your treasures. But are museums a great place to dispose of YOUR collection?

Virtually every museum in the world was originally built around the collection of a single, very wealthy individual. As time went by, and they grew in stature, their collections grew – again, usually through donations of very wealthy patrons, or through the plunder of great and powerful armies and successful military campaigns. Museums do buy individual important pieces, but they are able to do this often by selling off pieces of lesser quality. It helps to think of museums as being a business unto themselves. They need to generate money to stay in business. They want their revenues to exceed their expenses. They need exciting exhibits to bring in visitors. And, they buy, sell, loan and trade their inventory – ART!

If you are thinking of donating your ancient art to a museum, you need to have a bit of knowledge about what this process is all about before you do so. You need to make sure your expectations are met and there are no surprises. Do we need a checklist? Of course we do!
1. Is it important to you that your item(s) will be displayed? If this is a yes, ask the museum curator if your item is important enough to be displayed. You might even ask when it will be displayed and where it will be displayed. Get this in writing as part of your agreement. We have been involved in de-accessioning art from museums and have seen things sitting in storage that have not seen the exhibit floor ever – and some were donated to the museum as long as 80 years prior! If this is not important, tell the curator they may do with your item as they wish.
2. Is it a good financial decision to donate to a museum? Tax laws for donations of this type have changed, and there have been a few cases making the news lately of museums, appraisers and owners getting into cahoots to inflate the value of donated items – with harsh legal consequences. You will be able to deduct the fair market value for your item, but you need to talk to your personal accountant about whether this makes financial sense for you.
3. Can you dispose of items with limited provenance? Most collectors have found themselves with items lacking extensive, or sometimes even adequate, provenance. Museums are not the place to try to dump these. As a business, they need to be even more careful of what they accept, and in virtually every case will want provenance that is even better documented than the major auction houses. Museums HATE when countries come after them to “repatriate” “stolen” goodies. Its bad press… and bad business.
4. Will the museum possibly buy my collection? The answer here is - almost never. In a very rare circumstance they may be willing to buy one or two very rare, very important objects (with impeccable, bullet-proof provenance) that will make a huge impact on their existing collection. But museums are chronically cash poor. Even if you find a museum that wants your item, it can take months or years to finalize the deal after every department and committee has given its approval to spend their limited cash.

This may sound like I am very against donating to museums. Not true! I hope that before I am done playing temporary curator to the many goodies that pass through our hands that one day I have a piece or two that are worthy of permanent display at a prominent museum. It would be pretty cool to know my grandkids could some day go to the museum and see “Gift of R. Dodge and Family…”

Until next week,
Bob