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I understand that some insurance companies have a rule that it they discover that you have been paying only a proportion of the value of your collection, they will pay only the same proportion of the value of items lost in a disaster. However, as you say, most items are irreplaceable and have little real financial value so the insurance should be to cover the cost of replacing the types of object lost. My feeling is that it would be quite easy to get replacements for free - from donors and other museums (since many of us would be delighted to transfer some of our duplicate collections). The cost would be in administration of such a process (making a record of items which were stolen or destroyed or damaged (e.g. by fire), then upgrading displays. This would be very time consuming, but I don't think it would be covered by any sort of insurance. Ceredigion has an unusual situation in that the Council don't pay a commercial company for insurance but put aside a certain amount each year and have a very large sum set aside for insurance for all their possessions (including school buildings etc). This is like Government Indemnity. They work on the assumption that not every building (or in our case, every item in the collection), will be destroyed in one go. In this case, we would get a payment for the estimated value of items stolen or destroyed. I imagine that this would be the subject of long negotiations because the real value of the items (or their replacements) When we were insured with a commercial company, they wanted a list of all items worth more than a certain amount (£3,000 I think), which was a small number of items. Some museums update their valuations by a fixed percentage each year (which they get from some central source), but this is an average, since some types of museum object go up in value and others down. One of the things which have a high market price at present are photographs, postcards and prints, and these would cost a lot to replace, but if they have been scanned in to a high standard (at least 600 dpi), there would be little point in replacing them all (as long as the digital copies were backed up securely in another building so they would survive a fire). We recently had to have a large collection of items which had been bequeathed to us valued for Probate purposes. A representative from a very well respected auctioneer house didn't even look at the collection, but based his estimated value on a list we had prepared and some general photographs. If this was enough to satisfy probate, then it might be enough to satisfy an insurance company. Another approach is to list all items worth over £1000, and give an average value for the rest (say £10). Calculating the real value of a large collection is unrealistic. You could spend an entire year doing this and it would be of very little benefit to anyone. I realise that this doesn't really answer your question, but it does give some alternative approaches to arranging insurance. The important thing is to ensure that you know exactly what is covered. It is really a matter of risk management. Dymuniadau gorau / Best Wishes Michael Freeman Curadur, Amgueddfa Ceredigion, Coliseum, Ffordd y Môr, Aberystwyth, SY23 2AQ (01970) 633087 http://amgueddfa.ceredigion.gov.uk (Gwefan Cymraeg) P Ystyriwch yr amgylchedd cyn printio'r nodyn post yma os gwelwch yn dda. Curator, Ceredigion Museum, Coliseum, Terrace Road, Aberystwyth, SY23 2AQ (01970) 633087 http://museum.ceredigion.gov.uk (web site, English) P Please consider the environment before printing this mail note -----Original Message----- From: Museums Current Awareness Bulletin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karen Murdoch Sent: 11 February 2010 10:36 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Question about museum insurance Hello list members, I am trying to understand the issue of insurance for our museum collection but have found very little available information. I am therefore interested to know what approach other museums have taken, especially those run by local authorities. Our insurance department are keen to have an inventory of the entire collection, including valuations, to ensure we are paying for enough but not too much insurance cover. Whilst I would love to be able to provide this kind of information for them our documentation is a long way off of this being possible. Valuations have been carried out for items of higher value but these valuations will now be out of date. As with most county museum collections, the majority of our objects could never be replaced but have very little financial value. I'm keen to know if other museums have made educated guesses about how much insurance they require and how they have arrived at a figure. Is this figure then increased by a percentage every year? Any help on this issue is greatly appreciated Best wishes Karen This e-mail message and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or organisation to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this e-mail in error, any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of it is strictly prohibited and you are requested to contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. 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