[Nhcoll-l] Collections insurance values

[Peter Rauch]

David comments, "...but the authorities, and probably even insurance
companies, have a different view and do not understand the scientific
value."

Among the myriad issues (e.g., the IRS, the insurance valuations, the
"replacement" valuations, etc), there is the "they don't understand" issue
and it is this one which "We" must repeatedly assess, engage, and fight to
have be understood (regardless of whether the outcome of those excercises
does not change the valuation, the valuation protocols and criteria).

The "market place" that does not factor into accounts the environmental
costs of "doing business" is the one that got our Earth into the dire
dilemma we live now. THAT is where our sampling of the world's biota finds
its most valuable representation to Humanity.

"From an insurance standpoint", or from a humanity-in-the-balance
standpoint ?  Where do WE look to find the value of a biological collection
(lost) ?

WE should set the standard, and others can choose to fail to meet it and/or
to ignore it.

Peter


On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 2:04 PM, Furth, David <FURTHD at si.edu> wrote:

>  This issue arises every few years and there is no easy answer or
> solution.
>
>
>
> Like many institutions we do not assign values to our collections, for
> many reasons.  We are essentially “self-insured”, i.e. if something is
> damaged we do not try to recuperate funds.  We do sometimes insure
> collections being transported and we just try to use a very approximate,
> but educated value (see below).
>
>
>
> Although a slightly different issue, as far as the IRS is concerned, the
> value of specimens must be based on a “fair market value”, i. e, a similar
> amount of  money exchanged for similar objects.  Such values can be onerous
> to obtain (e. g., from commercial dealer or auction catalogs, etc.) and
> often cannot be truly done accurately.  And, of course, it is illegal for
> recipient institutions to provide values to donors or potential donors.
> Believe me I understand and sympathize with the issue of irreplaceability
> of natural history objects (usually very different from art, etc.), but the
> authorities, and probably even insurance companies, have a different view
> and do not understand the scientific value.
>
>
>
> This probably does not provide a clear answer, because it is not an easy
> or clear cut issue!
>
>
>
> ******************************************************
>
> David G. Furth, Ph.D.
>
> Department of Entomology
>
> MRC 165, P.O. Box 37012
>
> National Museum of Natural History
>
> Smithsonian Institution
>
> Washington, D. C. 20013-7012  USA
>
> Phone: 202-633-0990
>
> Fax: 202-786-2894
>
> Email: furthd at si.edu
>
> Website: www.entomology.si.edu
>
>
>
> *From:* nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:
> nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] *On Behalf Of *Anita Cholewa
> *Sent:* Monday, July 28, 2014 4:01 PM
> *To:* Peter Rauch
> *Cc:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] Collections insurance values
>
>
>
> Of course museum specimens, by their very nature, are irreplaceable so a
> valuation should be infinite.
>
> However, from an insurance standpoint (and let's be honest, there has to
> be some minimum value put on these things) you might want to check with an
> institution such as the Smithsonian or the Field Museum as to how a
> valuation can be assessed.
>
> Anita
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 2:24 PM, Peter Rauch <peterar at berkeley.edu> wrote:
>
> It would seem that a "scientific" specimen's value today would depend
> greatly not only on the cost of a field collecting trip, but also on the
> very potential of being able to collect "equivalent" (whatever that means)
> genetic samples, which may be not only time period dependent (specimens
> sampled from populations of 50/100/200 years ago), but also locality
> dependent (locality/habitat conditions that no longer exists).
>
> Such variational representation that those specimens lost from our
> scientific collections has become so much more meaningful (detectable,
> analyzable, interpretable, valuable) with today's scientific knowledge and
> understanding. One can not simply buy more of the same specimens with the
> price of a field trip.
>
> How would those lost or significantly altered situations affect the
> replacement (if that is what it is to be called) valuation of lost
> specimens ?
>
> Peter
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 7:36 PM, Brown, Matthew A <matthewbrown at utexas.edu>
> wrote:
>
> Dear list,
>
> We've recently been in discussions with the University's Risk Assessment
> office about their annual (?) policy update. I know that when they visited
> last about five years ago, we gave them a ballpark of $1-1.5k cost of
> replacement per specimen for our paleontological collections. In this
> recent conversation, they sent a section from the Fine Arts policy stating
> more or less that loss of "archeological" objects will only be paid out at
> fair market value, not cost of replacement from the field. I've let them
> know that as scientific collections, they don't have commercial value, and
> that the only way we could rebuild a similar collection is through field
> work. Risk Management is checking with the insurance company for
> clarification, and I'm asking for input from the community to find out how
> other institutions handle this issue. We've been round on this with customs
> declaration values before, but I can't think of a resource for this
> particular issue.
>
> Any advice would be appreciated.
>
> With thanks,
>
>
> Matthew A. Brown, M.Sc.
> Head of Collections, Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory
> Lecturer, Department of Geological Sciences
> Jackson School of Geosciences
> The University of Texas at Austin
> R7600, Austin, TX 78758
> Office:(512)232-5515
> matthewbrown at utexas.edu
> jsg.utexas.edu/vpl
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>
>
>
>
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> __________
> Anita F. Cholewa, Ph.D.
> Curator of the UM Herbarium (MIN)
>    and Acting Curator of Lichens
> J.F. Bell Museum of Natural History
> University of Minnesota
> 1445 Gortner Ave
> ST PAUL MN 55108-1095
>
> campus mail code: 6022
>
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