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Here is the latest article on the Museums site!

Handling Museum Donors

The hardest part of my job is handling the donors who give artifacts to my museum. Here is some advice on how to handle this important, but delicate, process!

Great article. Handling donations can put someone in rough seas. Someone once wanted to donate an old radio. Although it was not local and I was not the one making the decision (which was to decline), I envisioned an exhibit - FDR, radio chats, things in our collection that would possibly have fit into that exhibit. I thought there might have been a lot of interest in an exhibit like that especially around Veterans Day.

Is it appropriate to take as a temporary piece sell later? Do you sell some of your collection at times?

If you don't plan to keep something in your collection, you should not accept it at all.

You can accept something as a "non-accessioned" gift, with the intent to sell it later, as long as you are up front with the donor so there is no confusion later about the museum "selling off the collection." You don't want to give the community the wrong impression. If you have a reputation for selling items from your collection, then you will find people are unwilling to donate to you.

This gives me an idea for an article! Next week we will take a look at the deaccessioning process. Thanks!