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January 2001
A potential donor has indicated to us that she would like our museum to have a range of items from her private collection of silverware. We have thanked her for the offer and explained our collecting policy.
We are due to meet her again shortly to discuss what we will accept. Some of the items she wants us to have do not fall within our collecting policy but would, if sold to a dealer or at auction, or indeed to another museum, raise money that would greatly benefit our museum.
Would it be ethical to raise with the donor the possibility of such a sale? For us, the ideal outcome would be for her to sell the items at a fair price to another museum and for the profits from the sale to come to us. Frankly, at the moment, what our museum needs is not more objects, but cash.
You evidently understand your obligation to explain that you cannot accept items that fall outside your museum's collecting policy. Standard procedure in these situations is to raise with the donor the possibility of her donating to another registered museum the items your museum should not accept.
You might also offer to act as facilitator in finding the right museum for her objects. If, however, the donor does not want another museum to have the items that your museum does not want to accept, what she does with them is entirely up to her.
If she proposes selling them, and asks your advice on the sale, treat her request as you would any normal enquiry concerning valuation and sale. Refrain from giving any kind of valuation and refer her to the standard sources of information on dealers and auctioneers.
If the relationship that you establish with this benefactor allows you to discuss the possibility of a financial donation to the museum, then you should have no scruple about making the most of the opportunity.
You should handle the situation with tact and sensitivity, and if there is any resistance to the idea, it would be quite improper to pursue the subject further. If, however, your benefactor appears receptive, then it would be appropriate to refer her to material published by your museum about accepting donations and bequests of objects and money.
All museums in the public domain should explore the ways that they can benefit from the techniques used by charities for attracting potential benefactors, and where relevant, publish promotional material explaining the tax advantages of methods of charitable donation.
In your particular case, make sure that you treat any discussion of a potential financial donation as entirely separate from the way you respond to the benefactor's enquiry about her wish to sell her property.
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