Message-ID: <001701c8c847$071d40d0$0301a8c0@Jensen> From: "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@wi.rr.com> Subject: Re: Trunk sale Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 21:34:36 -0500
This is an interesting, and a bit surprising, posting. I have always
heard that it is not considered good museum practice to auction or sell
locally items which are deaccessioned from one's collection. If
deaccessioned items are sold at all, I was of the impression that
they should be auctioned "far from home." The reasoning is -- or so I
learned -- is that
selling such items locally gives potential future donors the wrong
impression. They may be reluctant to donate artifacts if they believe
their gifts, too, will be sold, not preserved.
Obviously, any museum will have to deaccession items from time to time.
And donors know, at least theoretically, that when a museum accepts an
item it may not be forever. And maybe there is no one left alive who
donated any of the trunks in question.
Nonetheless, for an institution dededicated to preservation, publically
and locally selling historical items from its collection can leave an
unfortunate impression that it is little better than an antique store.
At least that is what museum professionals have told me.
What is the practice at other museums?
Don Jensen
Kenosha History Center, member BoD
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Dodsworth
To: Listserve
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 7:23 PM
Subject: Trunk sale
The Mazomanie Historical Society announces a trunk and travel case auction for Saturday, June 14. Nineteen surplus trunks and travel cases will go on the silent auction block between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Depot Library on Brodhead Street in downtown Mazomanie. It will be held in conjunction with a village-wide garage sale and the annual Library Book Sale. All items will have minimum bid price and the winning bids will be announced at 1 p.m. All sales are cash and carry.