The aim of the Increasing the Mobility of Collections conference, which was held during the UK’s six-month presidency of the European Union (EU), was to discuss ways to break down the barriers that make loaning objects difficult for Europe’s 30,000 museums. The ideas developed in Manchester will be fed into an EU Mobility of Collections Action Plan.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has created a number
of working groups, which will make proposals for the action plan. The plan will then be presented to EU ministers in November after being discussed at a collections mobility conference in July in Helsinki, Finland.
The Manchester conference focused on three key areas: indemnity schemes, best practice and building trust between museum professionals.
These three topics were taken from the eight main recommendations contained in the Lending to Europe report, which was endorsed by European culture ministers in May last year. Other subjects that need to be addressed include immunity from seizure, loan fees and digitisation.
Ronald De Leeuw, the director general of the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, was the chairman of the group that produced Lending to Europe.
He said: ‘The findings and recommendations of the report could constitute an important starting point, but only if they are widely supported and if they are applied by museums and promoted by the member states, the Council of the European Union, the European parliament and the European Commission.’
Speakers in Manchester included Freda Matassa, the head of collections management at the Tate, who discussed indemnity and the related issue of insurance. She said there needed to be a better understanding about indemnity.
‘It has become clear that there is in some quarters a lack of understanding as to what indemnity is and there can be some fairly dramatic misconceptions as to its nature and capabilities.’
The Network of European Museum Organisations (Nemo) is among the bodies working on proposals for the action plan. Nemo has been surveying the various lending forms used by nation states with the aim of creating a template that all countries can use.
‘Mobility of museum collections is the way to spread knowledge of European culture, which is of great importance for European integration,’ said Frank Birkebaek, a Nemo member and the director of the Roskilde Museum in Denmark.
‘The role of Nemo is important, because it is a forum for exchanging information and for making contact between all museum organisations.'
Despite the progress being made, there are still a number of barriers to creating a better environment for loaning items across Europe.
One is the problem of works of art being seized, something that was highlighted in November when paintings owned by Moscow’s Pushkin Museum were temporarily seized in Switzerland.
This situation came about after a Geneva-based firm said it was owed money by the Russian government. At present, there are big differences between the various systems of immunity from seizure applied in the EU and elsewhere.
Simon Stephens
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has created a number
of working groups, which will make proposals for the action plan. The plan will then be presented to EU ministers in November after being discussed at a collections mobility conference in July in Helsinki, Finland.
The Manchester conference focused on three key areas: indemnity schemes, best practice and building trust between museum professionals.
These three topics were taken from the eight main recommendations contained in the Lending to Europe report, which was endorsed by European culture ministers in May last year. Other subjects that need to be addressed include immunity from seizure, loan fees and digitisation.
Ronald De Leeuw, the director general of the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, was the chairman of the group that produced Lending to Europe.
He said: ‘The findings and recommendations of the report could constitute an important starting point, but only if they are widely supported and if they are applied by museums and promoted by the member states, the Council of the European Union, the European parliament and the European Commission.’
Speakers in Manchester included Freda Matassa, the head of collections management at the Tate, who discussed indemnity and the related issue of insurance. She said there needed to be a better understanding about indemnity.
‘It has become clear that there is in some quarters a lack of understanding as to what indemnity is and there can be some fairly dramatic misconceptions as to its nature and capabilities.’
The Network of European Museum Organisations (Nemo) is among the bodies working on proposals for the action plan. Nemo has been surveying the various lending forms used by nation states with the aim of creating a template that all countries can use.
‘Mobility of museum collections is the way to spread knowledge of European culture, which is of great importance for European integration,’ said Frank Birkebaek, a Nemo member and the director of the Roskilde Museum in Denmark.
‘The role of Nemo is important, because it is a forum for exchanging information and for making contact between all museum organisations.'
Despite the progress being made, there are still a number of barriers to creating a better environment for loaning items across Europe.
One is the problem of works of art being seized, something that was highlighted in November when paintings owned by Moscow’s Pushkin Museum were temporarily seized in Switzerland.
This situation came about after a Geneva-based firm said it was owed money by the Russian government. At present, there are big differences between the various systems of immunity from seizure applied in the EU and elsewhere.
Simon Stephens
