RAM Talks Art: Donating objects to a museum collection

By Jeremiah Blankenbaker, Registrar, Rockford Art Museum            

Maybe you have that old painting gathering dust in the basement, or your great-great aunt's wedding dress sitting in mothballs in the closet. Or, perhaps, there just isn't room for that Mesopotamian vase anymore. Why not donate them to a museum?

Donations serve as the lifeblood of a museum's collection, and museums depend on them to give form and character to their permanent collection.

For instance, of the 1,500-piece permanent collection at Rockford Art Museum, more than 1,100 are donations. Of that number, approximately 600 come from large donors who have donated more than 50 pieces. The remaining items, a third of the collection, come from individual or small donations of artwork.

Making a donation can offer you many benefits.

To start with, you will be contributing to the community welfare by providing for the museum's mission of cultural, historic and scientific preservation and education.

If you are concerned your home may not be the safest place for an object's preservation, then donating may be a viable option for you, since preservation of objects for future generations happens to be a priority at most museums. One word of caution, though—museums do like donations that come in good condition, and will be much less willing to accept an object in poor condition. It is easier to preserve and maintain the former, rather than the latter.

Many museums include a donor line whenever the object is on display. Most often this will read simply, “Gift of Ike and Zee Clearly,” but a gift in honor or memory of someone is a possibility at most institutions.

For financial incentive, the IRS allows a tax deduction for donations to non-profit institutions. If you expect to claim more than $5,000 for a single item, then you must have it appraised. Otherwise, you can claim the amount you believe—with good cause—the object is worth. A downloadable PDF file that will explain donations in much more depth can be found at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p561.pdf.

A few things before giving away your grandmother's antique vase:

Not all museums are open to receiving any sort of artwork or artifact. All museums have finite resources, and not everything can be collected by one institution. Museums are most open to works that fit the focus of the museum and do not duplicate objects already in the collection. Keep in mind that all objects are not equal in stature, and museums want to collect the most significant objects.

The more information you can provide about the object and its maker will make for a better pitch to the museum. Having the provenance—or the object's history of ownership—has become extremely important for certain pieces, especially with growing concern about restitution of artwork looted from Jews during the Holocaust, and the recent looting of antiquities in Iraq.

Furthermore, certain objects require different or special care. Textiles and natural specimens are two of the most difficult types of collection objects to care for; museums that collect these items must purchase special equipment and have special knowledge for their preservation.

So, research is very important. Find out what the museum's collection looks like, what their mission is, and what their collection policy and procedures are. Don't hesitate to ask questions or to visit the museum to see what its facility and collection look like.

Accessioning, or the process whereby an object becomes part of the permanent collection, varies from museum to museum. Some museums will use a committee to decide which donated, or acquired, work is allowed into the museum's collection. Many other times, the curator does all of the accessioning.

Very few museums will accession an object and then turn around and sell it, but this does happen. However, the vast majority of museums will not accession an item without the intent to display and keep it in the collection for some time. Occasionally, pieces will need to be deaccessioned, or removed from the collection, as the collection grows and changes. This may, at some point in time, include your object.

After you have made your donation, don't expect to go into the museum to see that object at any given time. Most museums hold and preserve a collection that is much bigger than they can exhibit at any one time. Different museums have different policies as to how they handle displaying their permanent collection. Most rotate a part of the permanent collection in some manner, so your antique vase will be on display for an allotted period of time, and for the remainder of the time it will be stored and preserved in the museum's collection vault.

Museums cherish their donors. They depend on donors to provide strength and vitality to their mission of promoting and educating the community. Remember, they are your museums, Rockford. Support them, and enjoy them!

Rockford Art Museum Registrar Jeremiah Blankenbaker can be reached at blankenbaker@rockfordartmuseum.org.

from the Nov. 28-Dec. 4, 2007, issue

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