I am not sure that this is always a monstrous evil! There may be cases where
artefacts (e.g. medals, coins) associated with a deposit have a high financial
value and - having been properly photographed and documented - could surely be
sold off for the benefit of the owner and his/her descendants without loss of
informational value to the archive. Where the archivist believes this to be the
case, is there not a moral duty at least to suggest it? Possibly this is what
the Museum officer had in mind - that it may be unwise for an institution
silently to encourage the donor to act against his or her personal interests.
In some cases it is possible for a donor to claim tax relief on the value of
archives. I recall a case where an American gentleman bought a manorial
lordship, and (being, rightly, unable to take the manorial documents out of the
approved repository) asked for a valuation, presented them to the repository,
and claimed the tax benefit. It seems to me that everybody won: he got his
manorial title, the repository got the documents previously held on loan deposit
converted to a gift just by paying a small valuation fee, and he got a hefty
kickback from Uncle Sam.
Just as a footnote on the fine art of valuing archives: the valuation in the
above case was carried out by an (local and reputable) 'father-and-son' firm of
antiquarian booksellers, and entrusted to the apprenti sorcier. Since the
archives included a rather unusual example of a piepowder court record, the son
spent quite some time looking for comparable material in saleroom reports.
After some weeks delay, I mentioned to the father that the owner was getting a
little impatient, to be told - "I don't know what the lad is finding so
difficult! You look at the document, and think to yourself 'it's got to be
worth, well .... so much'; and then you look at it again, and think 'and on the
other hand, it could be worth as much as ....'; you split the difference - and
that's your valuation!"
David Jones
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