Background

This study was part of the European Collections Mobility project, launched in 2004, which was designed to encourage exchange of cultural collections throughout European Union states. The project looked at the barriers to increasing loans and set up work groups to address the various issues. These included indemnity, long-term loans, networking, contracts, digitisation and common standards. The project produced two books: Lending to Europe and Encouraging Collections Mobility, as well as shorter publications, training sessions and toolkits.

One of the major barriers to collections mobility was found to be the high cost of insurance. Many organisations said they could not borrow items from abroad as they couldn't afford the insurance premium. This led to questions about the values of items in public collections and whether anything could be done to reduce premiums for items on loan.

The authors were commissioned by the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission to undertake a study of the experience and practice of museums in all EU countries and to produce recommendations. An initial analytical report was published in 2011 and a broader study in 2012. Although the title refers to works of art, the authors included many different types of publicly held cultural collections.

Objectives

The objectives were:

Method

Questionnaire: an initial questionnaire was issued for the analytical report to determine the size of the problem. Results suggested the need for a more indepth questionnaire targeting curators who undertook valuations of items in their own collections. Members of the OMC Group provided the authors with contact details for at least two museums in each country. The museums had to be significant borrowers of items from abroad.

Interviews: In order to extend the enquiry beyond museums and to gain more knowledge of the subject, 25 interviews were carried out by the authors. They spoke to insurers, valuers and key government staff as well as to curators.