posted 02-20-2009 07:40 PM            

BTW Can someone give something to a Museum on a temporary basis, i.e., on loan for a specific length of time, & under what circumstances.

Thank You.

posted 02-21-2009 08:17 AM            

The standard in museums today is that gifts are permanent and without strings (i.e. permanent display). A temporary LOAN of an object to a museum depends entirely on that museum's need for the piece--is there an exhibition for which a piece of silver is needed? If a museum has a permanent gallery for silver (we don't have silver per se, but we have a group of permanent decorative arts galleries in our Ballantine House wing); then they might want to borrow silver because (a) it's something that really makes a point they can't otherwise make; or (b) they are hoping that the loan will become a gift someday if they borrow it.

What museums don't do is to borrow things for no particular reason. There was a widespread past custom (or really a bad habit) that museums of all sizes would hold objects and art for influential patrons and trustees, with no thought or promise of an eventual gift. This doesn't happen much any more, unless it is a particularly important object that would, say, draw visitors to see it.

Newark's biggest and most intractable problem is lack of real estate. I'd say that 85% of my silver collection is in storage, although some of my best and most interesting things are on more-or-less permanent display. I am loathe to take in any loans, because they would displace something from the permanent collection; yet collectors are loathe to donate things just to languish in storage.