[Nhcoll-l] Insurance question for collections

[Dirk Neumann]

Dear Peter,

I am not sure in what direction "valuating" exactly points: the historic 
and cultural value of the allocated museum objects, or the replacement 
costs in case of a (fatal) loss (e.g., through a major fire, like in 
Rio, Butantan or Cape Town)?

There have been various approached to valuate collections and objects, 
but from a pragmatic point of view you cannot replace them, because you 
cannot re-collect the same specimens and objects back in time. Thus, any 
loss of these cultural objects is irreversible. They are not just 
specimens sitting in a jar, drawer or cardboard box awaiting to be 
viewed and studied.

Museum items are unique objects that cannot be replaced. A digital 
representation or re-collected specimens may may carry information or to 
some extent represent the same species, but they cannot provide the same 
cultural history under which the specimens were originally collected in 
the field,  were acquired by the museum, the cultural meaning and value 
they added to the collection and institution.

We lost nearly our entire fish collection in WW II, only 300 jars 
survived. Our fish collection now is a modern post-war collection that 
is (largely) deprived from its historic value with individual 
exceptions, such as the few Spix specimens from the famous expedition on 
the Amazon 1817-1820. This is an irreversible loss - even though we 
kindly received historic material (including syntypes) to restore our 
collection after the war from other museums supporting us to rebuild our 
collections.

A different question (specifically in terms of insurance coverage) is 
what would it cost to restore a collection after it got affected, e.g., 
by a severe weather event, which becomes increasingly relevant our days. 
To cover "insured losses", it would be relevant to have a good estimate 
of the costs to replace containers, seals and (partly) objects (e.g. 
partial coverage of travel costs if re-collecting is an option and still 
possible). The most expensive bit in this surely are staff costs 
(additional well trained staff to mitigate damage and required help to 
support local staff to restore affected collection objects), assuming 
that costs to restore the building would be covered by a building 
insurance or would come from different sources. Another relevant factor 
is replacement costs for storage containers, furniture, specific 
preparations, etc.

It would be good to have a good proxy to roughly calculate these costs, 
e.g., by establishing  estimate value for a given amount of objects on 
storage, i.e. a specific amount of containers, storage furniture and 
work time to prepare them (i.e. average costs to replace jars, drawers 
etc. per cupboard or otherwise defined subunit), that can then be scaled 
up for the entire collection. This should accommodate different needs / 
requirements in different collections, for example the costs to remove 
mould and mould spores from dry specimens like corals are much higher 
than the removing mould from the outside of jars in a fluid collection.

In general, cleaning of museum objects (not only the storage rooms) is a 
major costs factor that should be sufficiently covered by an insurance, 
because mould outbreaks due to a malfunctioning climate HVAC system, 
accumulation of dirt and dust due to renovation works, burst pipes or 
sprinkler systems installed in collection etc are no so rare incidents. 
Also covered should be costs needed equipment or relevant auxiliary 
support, such as temporary installation of refrigeration containers, and 
replacement of storage furniture and storage containers, preservation 
fluids etc. are relevant cost factors that must be considered.

The Preventive Conservation book 
<https://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki/Collection_Storage> gives an good 
overview on relevant topics, and even though it does not address 
insurance or collections in an separate chapter, chapters 3 (Preventive 
Conservation approach), 4 (Risk Assessment) and especially 16 (Emergency 
Management) give useful keywords that surely are worth considering.

Hope this helps,
Dirk


Am 19.08.2021 um 00:37 schrieb Peter H Wimberger:
>
> Dear NHCollers,
>
> Our university is revisiting their insurance coverage and asked us for 
> an inventory of specimens and equipment.  The adjusters are not sure 
> how to deal with natural history collection specimens.  What 
> experience do people have valuating their collections?  Are there 
> conventions that natural history collections or their parent 
> institutions use for insuring collections?  If folks could point me in 
> the direction of resources or let me know what they have done, I would 
> be very appreciative!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Peter
>
> Peter Wimberger
>
> Director, Slater Museum of Natural History
>
> Professor, Biology
>
> University of Puget Sound
>
> Tacoma, WA 98406
>
>
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-- 


Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

Postanschrift:

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Zoologische Staatssammlung München
Dirk Neumann, Sektion Ichthyologie / DNA-Storage
Münchhausenstr. 21
81247 München

Besuchen Sie unsere Sammlung:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/

---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Storage
Muenchhausenstr. 21
81247 Munich (Germany)

Visit our section at:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/

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