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This is indeed a most intriguing question - as curator of the Liverpool Football Club Museum we hold many items that could be defined as priceless - no better example than the Champions League Trophy we won on the 25th May.
This is unique, it is THE trophy presented on the night, and and as this was the fifth time we have won this trophy, it is ours... with all the implicaitons, emotions, memories, etc attached to this event.
A straight cost for replicating the trophy exactly is not hard to obtain - £6,000 will do it, and indeed has, as we created a "working " facsimile for certain off-site uses, to help preserve the integrity of the original.
But the original will never be sold, so therefore has no legal value in an auction house, but it's "value" to the visitors of the Museum is far more than £6,000 for a facsimile,. A fascimile copy simply wont do,(quite correctly) - the years and layers of hopes, dreams, successes and failures, the countless stories of effort and sacrifice to travel Europe to follow the team on their European journey since 1976 when Liverpool started to win this trophy, cannot be calculated.. but also cannot be replaced.
One way of looking at its "value", would be loss of income due to it no longer taking pride of place in the museum, (and in our example generating a 50% increase in visitor numbers and income). Thinking about the Rosetta Stone for example, makes me wonder if the destruction of that priceless item could be counted in visitor footfall/income? But in the end though, a total loss is just that. No amount of money will in any way replace the loss, so i guess the queston is also somewhat academic, although driven by our insurance companies needing a value to offer cover.
I look forward to the next contribution to the debate...
Stephen Done
Curator
Liveprool Football Club Museum
Anfield Road
Liverpool
L4 OTH
0151 2640160
-----Original Message-----
From: Social History Curators Group email list on behalf of Robert Excell
Sent: Wed 2/1/2006 9:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHCG-LIST] Valuing 'priceless' objects
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This is an interesting question which deserves more discussion. Once I
was asked what the most 'valuable' item in the Rail transport Collection
at the Science Museum was. I replied that this was almost certainly the
'Rocket' locomotive - yet it was worth little to even collectors of
Railway locomotives as they would never be able to operate it - it is
little more than a load of scrap - with most of the brass removed. It
is also fairly robust so would survive a flood or possibly even a fire
with little need for conservation. Rather perversely in an auction room
locomotive name plates would be much more 'valuable'.
Whilst I think it is important for museums to provide an insurance value
for repair I think trying to give a purely monetary value for accounting
purposes rather misses the point - although I fear that many people,
including some of the holders of our purse strings, do not view it in
this way.
Robert Excell
Curator (Collections Care),
London's Transport Museum,
Covent Garden,
London WC2E 7BB.
Tel: O207 379 6344 (ext 2254)
-----Original Message-----
From: Social History Curators Group email list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Briony Hudson
Sent: 31 January 2006 15:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHCG-LIST] Valuing 'priceless' objects
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Hi Christine,
The Cost of Collecting report (Lord, Lord and Nicks, HMSO, 1989)
might provide some thoughts on the subject, although a quick flick
through the copy I have lurking on the office shelves doesn't turn up
anything that looks too helpful. Might give some ideas for a
methodology though. I'm happy to lend you our copy if you'd like a
look.
Our collections are not on the Society's asset register, as the
furniture, computers and fittings are. We have high-value areas of the
collection e.g. portraits, delftware, medicine chests valued as with
market value, partly because I lost an argument about looking at the
conservation costs as an alternative (currently not enough time to
re-trace my steps on this one!)
All the best
Briony
Briony Hudson
Keeper of the Museum Collections/SHCG Chair
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
1 Lambeth High Street
London
SE1 7JN
-----Original Message-----
From: Johnstone, Christine
[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 31 January 2006 09:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHCG-LIST] Valuing 'priceless' objects
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At a conference last week, I was discussing how you
value resources that you cannot sell, with someone interested in this
issue for public parks.
I mentioned that Wakefield has used the likely future
conservation costs to value objects [ie what it would cost to conserve
them if we leave them in a damp environment for another year].
I'm now being asked for further information.
Do any other museums use this method, or a version of
it? Does anyone know of a standard formula? Are your collections
included on the asset registers of your organisation?
Any help or suggestions gratefully received!
Christine
Christine Johnstone
Principal Cultural Officer: History, City of Wakefield
MDC Cultural Services
Wakefield Museum, Wood St, Wakefield, WF1 2EW
Tel: 01924 305350 Fax: 01924 305353
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web-site: www.wakefield.gov.uk/culture and
www.wakefield.gov.uk/toys
Exhibitions in the district:
Bruce Bernard - Wakefield Art Gallery
Discovering Ancient Egypt - Wakefield Museum
Early European Paintings - Pontefract Museum
For more details, click on
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