[Nhcoll-l] Collections insurance values

[Carrie Eaton]

As a university museum, our collections are covered under a larger 
"property loss" insurance policy with "special collections" being 
insured by a fine art insurance rider (Matthew - I'm sure this is very 
similar to your situation). We had the opportunity to meet with our 
representatives from the fine art insurers (Huntington T Block) just 
last year and we discussed what "current market value" would be of 
objects that are rare, historically significant, or incredibly difficult 
to replace. Not to mention what that coverage really looks like in the 
event of a theft or disaster. We are required by our Risk Management 
office to inventory our collections annually and place valuations on our 
objects for insurance purposes. After some going back and forth with the 
insurance company, our State DOA office, and our own university Risk 
Management - we settled that the best "values" would come from things 
like sales results from recent auctions, vendor prices at well-known gem 
and mineral shows, AND the cost of a field expedition to acquire a new 
specimen. The manner of valuation would depend on the type of object and 
how it could possibly be replaced in the event of a loss. They also 
encouraged us to have our "top 10" objects professionally appraised. (I 
agree that Nudds and Pettit's 'Value and valuation...' is a good read)

Unfortunately, it is difficult to both assess and recoup the value of 
rare objects. Our museum was founded in 1848 and some of our specimens 
have been in the collection since the late 1800's. At face value, they 
are worth no more than another mastodon skeleton or calcite crystal - 
but their narrative means so much more to us. Similarly - T.Rex's aren't 
just falling off the walls, right?

If you don't already have a copy of your policy, I would encourage you 
to ask your office for it. It's good to know what your coverage is for 
things like loans, transit of traveling exhibitions, etc. I've been both 
pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised by some of the coverages and I 
like being able to double check the paper copy myself (although our Risk 
Management office here is very good about helping us out).
best,
Carrie Eaton

On 7/27/2014 9:36 PM, Brown, Matthew A 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


-- 
Carrie Eaton
Curator of Collections, UW Geology Museum
1215 West Dayton Street
Madison, WI 53706
(608)262.4912
carrie at geology.wisc.edu
www.facebook.com/uwgeologymuseum
twitter @UWGeologyMuseum