A Practical Guide for Museums, Libraries and Archives

This book addresses the issue of valuing objects in cultural collections, ranging from high-value to low or no-value and featuring a range of collections including fine art, archives, science and photography. Practical advice is given on how to assign values and best practice examples are drawn from museums, libraries and archives.

The subject of valuation has always been challenging for museums and public collections and is becoming more urgent as monetary values of many items continue to break records. There is an increase in lending, with more loans requiring a value for insurance. Cultural collections and exhibitions are expanding to all corners of the world, while, at the same time, lenders are becoming more risk-averse. Valuing Your Collection will address the issues and offer some solutions.

Content covered includes:

• questions of valuing public and private cultural collections
• assigning values to individual objects or an entire collection
• legal and ethical considerations
• discussion of authentication and attribution
• the insurance business and valuation
• guides to valuing different types of collections
• a range of case studies showing valuation across multiple sectors
• sample templates with criteria for valuing different objects.

This book will be useful for curators of cultural collections, professionals in museums, libraries and archives, cultural heritage students, private collectors, those involved with art insurance, art business and anyone requiring practical guidance on valuation.