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

Wed Mar 9 02:11:40 EST 2022

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

[cid:image001.jpg at 01D7F0F9.B30485E0]

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<mailto:neumann at snsb.de>
Αποστολή: Τρίτη, 8 Μαρτίου 2022 7:39 μμ
Προς: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto: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<http://www.bioshare.com>

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

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Dr. Nora Battermann
Koordination Sammlungsassessment
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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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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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U.S.A.

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