[Nhcoll-l] ΑΠ: Advice on estimating the value of donated collections?

Wed Mar 9 05:00:14 EST 2022

Hi all,

In Australian museums, as there is no commercial value, we use a recollection cost method to value collections. Theoretically how much does it cost to go in the field, preserve, curate, document, store etc a specimen. A premium is added for remote locations and types.

It has been very useful in showing administrators how valuable and irreplaceable the collections actually are.

Let me know off-list if you would like the valuation guidelines.

Cheers,
Gavin

Gavin Dally
Senior Collections Manager, Natural Sciences
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

magnt.net.au<http://www.magnt.net.au/>
street address: 19 Conacher St, The Gardens, Darwin, NT 0820 Australia | postal address: GPO Box 4646, Darwin, NT 0801 Australia

Sent from my iPhone
On 9 Mar 2022, at 6:20 pm, Battermann, Nora <battermann at snsb.de> wrote:

Dear all,

thanks for your replies so far. I fully agree with Maria - it would be incredibly useful to establish a method for estimating the value of natural history collections. Obviously, the value is infinite/impossible to measure but unfortunately there are instances in which we need to put a number on the value of a collection - be that insurance, posting/taxes, buying/selling or, at least in Germany for tax purposes, donation receipts.

Best wishes,
Nora

---
Dr. Nora Battermann
Koordination Sammlungsassessment
---------------------------
Kaulbachstr. 37, III. Stock
D-80539 München

Telefon:
+49 (0)174 2762445
---------------------------
www.snsb.de

Am 2022-03-09 08:11, schrieb Maria Dimaki:
Dear all,
indeed, it is a very interesting subject! The last years, I am asked
about the economic value of specimens or collections. Usually from
donators, for insurance, or other administrative reasons. My answer is
always that each specimen is priceless and that it is impossible to
define the value of a natural history museum collection in euros.
If the person insists, I answer that is definitely not our job to
“tag” a prize on specimens or collection and he should address to
the tax office (and I am sure that they know nothing on the subject,
in Greece).
For some time know, I believe that, we should establish a method to
estimate the value of Natural History Collections based on their
scientific, cultural and educational value, by using appropriate
criteria and a scoring system.
Best wishes
Maria
Dr. Maria Dimaki
Collections Manager
In Charge of the Department of Terrestrial Zoology
Goulandris Natural History Museum
100, Othonos St. Kifissia, GR 145 62, Greece
Από: Dirk Neumann
Αποστολή: Τρίτη, 8 Μαρτίου 2022 7:39 μμ
Προς: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Θέμα: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Advice on estimating the value of donated
collections?
Dear Hannu,
1€ would be better; within the EU (and the single market) you have
no customs borders anyway, and if you need to send materials to
Norway, Switzerland or Iceland, 1€ would be preferable to avoid
import taxes. Usually, the threshold for import tax is low (until the
most recent amendment this year, the minor threshold value was 22€).
Colleagues were charged recently few cent because the declared value
was 5€ ...
With best wishes
Dirk
Am 08.03.2022 um 12:48 schrieb Hannu Saarenmaa:
The answer is "nil". In computer science terms that means it does
not exist.  Nil also means "infinite".
Museum objects are irreplaceable. So there is no commercial value.
Or something that can be insured. Natural science collections cannot
be insured.
My company bioshare.com regularly sends collections over the
European Union border, for digitization, that is. While doing that,
we have to put something in the customs forms. And to inform our
insurance company.   So we put there the value of the paper sheets
which carry the [invaluable] herbarium sheets, or other objects.
That currently is 28€ per specimen. Do not laugh.  This is how it
works.
Anyway, I still prefer to report "nil" or zero value for the
irreplaceable.  If I can.
Hannu Saarenmaa  www.bioshare.com [1]
On 2022-03-08 11:42, Battermann, Nora wrote:
Dear all,
I thought this a very interesting discussion but understand that it
mainly concerned US institutions. I'd be interested to hear from
European institutions too - how do you estimate the values of
donated collections? I am not aware of a list of appraisers who
specialize in natural history collections in Germany for example and
wonder how other institutions handle acquisitions, especially
donations.
Greetings from sunny Munich,
Nora
---
Dr. Nora Battermann
Koordination Sammlungsassessment
---------------------------
Kaulbachstr. 37, III. Stock
D-80539 München
Telefon:
+49 (0)174 2762445
---------------------------
www.snsb.de [2]
Am 2022-02-28 19:50, schrieb Tacker, Christopher:
Everyone has offered good advice here.
Apart from conflicts of interest, the one that does the appraisal
stands to get involved with the state or federal tax enforcement. If
the appraisal is called into question, that represents a nearly
limitless time sink in hearings or in court.
We tell donors that we will work with whatever appraiser they
designate. We still get offers of "I'll donate this if you'll get me
an appraisal for X amount of money." That's a big "no, thank you."
Chris Tacker
Chris Tacker, Ph.D., P.G.
Research Curator of Geology
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
11 West Jones St. | Raleigh, NC  27601
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Taylor, Sarah <sarah.taylor at uconn.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2022 9:32:38 AM
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Good morning all,
A colleague at a regional museum reached out to ask me for advice on
how to estimate the value of a collection of donated birds (mostly
skins, some taxidermy mounts). He’s not interested in individual
values for each piece, but a big picture “lump sum.” I’m sure
this has come up on the listserve before, but I haven’t been able
to
locate it. If anyone has ideas or can point me in the direction of a
resource to send to my colleague, I’d really appreciate it! I have
no appraisal skills myself – and I’m a botanist – so I’m at
a
total loss on my end.
Cheers,
Sarah
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sarah Taylor, PhD
Collections Manager, CONN
George Safford Torrey Herbarium
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut
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Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3043
U.S.A.
P: 860.486.1889
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