Why you should not donate your family (or other) items to museums

**Jerry B** · 08-06-2015, 07:48 PM

Hopefully it is in the stores and one day they will display it Steve as most museums have large storage areas full of itmes they do not display

**FALLSCHIRMJAGER** · 08-06-2015, 07:52 PM

Bloody awful story Jerry, truly disgusting! Leon.

**HARRY THE MOLE** · 08-06-2015, 08:38 PM

by Jerry B

Hopefully it is in the stores and one day they will display it Steve as most museums have large storage areas full of itmes they do not display

God only know what will become of the remainder of my Ireland items when I pop my clogs - and more importantly, the diaries and photographs. If my eldest daughter gives them to a museum it will have to be with the proviso that they are put on display.

**Jerry B** · 08-06-2015, 08:42 PM

by HARRY THE MOLE

God only know what will become of the remainder of my Ireland items when I pop my clogs - and more importantly, the diaries and photographs. If my eldest daughter gives them to a museum it will have to be with the proviso that they are put on display.

Good luck with that as many will only display items as they see fit or at best might rotate them in and out of the stores.

**bigmacglenn** · 08-06-2015, 09:49 PM

The most important thing to me isn't the amount of money exchanged, it's that the items end up in good hands and not in the trash...We are all merely temporary caretakers...

cheers, Glenn

**Wilhelm Saris** · 08-08-2015, 12:05 PM

Doesn't this happen all over? Also here in the Netherlands it was done,
even by employees from a well-known war museum.
Keen - or should I say scrupulous- dealers got rare material from the
stored stuff!
What I have faced, was done already in the 1980's!

**wizardman** · 08-08-2015, 12:31 PM

Dont trust any museum..over the years they all sell or give to each other..its common practice. Where i lived as a child there was one of Australias largest privately run Military museums, when the owner found out he was dying he decided to sell everything, including all the 'on loan' stuff..A state run local museum offered him half his asking price in return they would keep the collection together in our local area...within 4 years of the sale,everything had gone!! Including one very rare working Japanese tank...The museum has never answered for this, other than to say they had decided to make the museum 'science' friendly with 'hands on' exhibits for children...as a footnote,this same museum only last year asked me to donate my collection to them on my untimely demise!

**Glenn66** · 08-08-2015, 01:55 PM

by wizardman

Dont trust any museum..over the years they all sell or give to each other..its common practice.!

No it's not...I work in the museum sector and ANY mention of selling ANY of the collection is absolutely rejected out of hand by the museum directors, let alone the curators.

Now, our museums are state-run so things could be different in private museums (which I wouldn't trust one little bit).

**wizardman** · 08-08-2015, 02:23 PM

State run museums are not able to sell but they swap..Didnt fighterworld at williamtown RAAF base swap a mustang for a replica ww1 plane a couple of years ago, ill look into that...btw with state run museums they have a criteria in what they can swap,and it doesnt have to be with other museums..if the item was donated before records and they cant find the original owner they can swap, if they gain permission from a donor they can swap or sell..i have had much to do with museums myself mate..one only needs to look at art museums to see what goes on

**Mark K** · 08-08-2015, 02:50 PM

This phenomana is nothing new and has been happening for many many years Museums will sell of or trade items to either make new accusitions and or to fund the museum in general ie... upgrades new displays.
I have donated a few items to one of are local museums here on the Island and they are quite happy to receive them if and only if the piece that they are being offered is needed and or will be in the foreseeable futurer and they actually try and dissuade people from making donations as they can not for 1# guarantee it will ever be displayed the other is the lack of proper storage as they are indeed bursting at the seems .
A couple of years back I was given the opportunity to be able to walk through there main store house which is part of the same complex and was truly awstruck by the mass of what they had stored away that in all likely hood will never see the light of day or be put out on display.
And just to touch on the mass of it they had row upon row of WW I ,WW II and early postwar era uniforms and BD's and if I was to educate a guess they would number in the range of around 200 and this may be a conservitave number and there was full representation of all the services.
I have had three museums contact me about a couple of helmets that reside in my collection and they would like me to donate them to be displayed for the public but can offer no guarantee's how long they will be displayed for so I have declined as the last thing I want is something from my collection to be put in a store room to never see the light of day again.
I myself would much rather loan them to the museums and keep ownership of the pieces in question but this is apparantly frowned upon as then the pieces need to be separately assessed for the purpuse of insurance and and will have to be covered at an additional cost to the museum .

Regards Mark