Background

In 2011 the European Commission, as part of the Workplan for Culture, asked the author to undertake a study of valuing works of art in museums. The reason behind the request was that in earlier studies, the high cost of insurance had been cited as a major barrier to sharing museum collections across the continent. The survey, undertaken with Dr Cornelia Dümke, a German museum economist, examined the practice of assigning values to cultural items in public collections. The study consisted of devising and issuing a questionnaire and interviewing curators and collections managers in each EU country. The results of the survey, including some comments and concerns from those interviewed, were published.

It became apparent that many of the people who were required to assign values felt unqualified to do so and had had little or no training. The report therefore came up with some suggestions on how to address concerns and produced guidance on how to undertake a valuation. In particular, it was decided to create a process to help curators to determine values. Several templates were produced which could take curators through a number of questions to ask when deciding on a value.

The study generated a great deal of interest both within and outside the UK and led to a desire to share experiences and to examine the subject in a more open manner. There was particular interest in looking at alternatives to full-value, nail-to-nail insurance (see Chapter 4, p. 74) and a desire to learn more about how to assign a value. This book grew out of ongoing discussions on the subject.

The idea of holding an entire conference on valuation was developed at the Natural History Museum, where the huge variety of different types of object presents considerable challenges in terms of valuation. The conference, covering all types of cultural collections, took place in April 2016.2 This book was already under way, but the ideas and expertise of the conference speakers as well as the ensuing debate, have been drawn upon to add up-to-date information and to give practical examples.