Message-ID: <1316115182.23753.YahooMailNeo@web30802.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:33:02 -0700 (PDT) From: "Patrick S. Blood" <plazmastox@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Museum artifact insurance
Hope is not a strategy... what good is a building if you don't have funds t
o replace collections?
Insurance proceeds would allow museum to acq
uire new items that might be similar to previous collections.
Interesting
subject ...
From: Maureen Giese <renie.giese@gmail.com>
To: localh
istory@listserve.uwec.edu
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 2:15 PM
Su
bject: Re: Museum artifact insurance
I fully agree with Don Jensen's m
essage. We at the Waterloo Area
Historical Society have insurance f
or the building ant that's it. We
have limited funds from the city,
and fundraise all the rest of our
budget. Our artifacts are priceless an
d no way can we afford
insurance. The best we can do is "oversee" everyth
ing so hopefully
nothing happens.
Maureen Giese, President & Curator
of the Waterloo Historical Museum
On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 12:17 PM, D
on Jensen <dnjkenosha@wi.rr.com> wrote:
> I guess my question is two-fold
. . . Why would a society insure its
> artifacts?  Do other so
cieties/museums on this list, in fact, insure their
> artifacts, and why?
>
> I of course understand insuring your building, and your fixtures (
cases,
> display units) and your equipment.   In case of
fire, water damage,
> theft, all those are replaceable, at a cost.Â
 Insurance makes sense. You
> can build a new museum and buy new eq
uipment.
>
> But artifacts are irreplaceable in most cases. Â
You can’t go out and buy a
> replacement family Bible of a promi
nent local family.
> How do you even place a value on something that you
cannot replace with
> insurance money.   Even assuming yo
u can find an insurer
> who will quote a premium that will pay you $2 mil
lion for your archival
> collection if it burns up and is gone, what do y
ou do with THAT insurance
> money
> you receive?
>
> Maybe I am mis
sing something here. . . but I don’t see how paying
> subst
antial insurance premiums
> for what is essentially uninsurable, puts you
, as a museum, in a better
> situation in the event of a castastrophe.Â
 Seems to me you are
> in no more favorable situation if you ins
ure your collection than if you
> don’t.  In that case
, it would seem that your premium money has been
> wasted. .
>
> I guess my main question is do other museums insure COLLECTIONS, and if s
o,
> why?
>
> Don Jensen
> Kenosha History Center BoD
>
>
> F
rom: William Woolley
> Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 4:34 PM
> To:
localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
> Cc: Tebon, Craig
> Subject: Museum ar
tifact insurance
>
> The Ripon Historical Society is considering buying
insurance to cover its
> collection of artifacts. If anyone has done thi
s recently could you contact
> me and let me know your experience.
>
> Bill Woolley, President
> woolleybill@gmail.com