Our customers are always so surprised when they learn we buy a lot of things from museums around the country. Many labor under the impression that museums are just these great big warehouses where cool old things come in, are cared for, and displayed in a way to benefit the former owner's tax status.
Sometimes. But those warehouses cost money, have limited space, and cannot accomodate the flow of incoming items. So the museum "deaccessions" - a fancy word for sells off duplicate items or things they cannnot build a display around.
And we buy it. We've purchased items from the Smithsonian and small local museums around the country, and loved the items we've gotten. We often receive a phone call from people trying to get it back, thinking they'd donated it to the museum in perpituity.
Nope. Not the way it works.
And sometimes, things go way wrong, with the curator taking the items that come in to the museum and "deaccessioning" them for himself.
This happened recently in the Northern California town of Fortuna, when a former curator of the Fortuna Depot Museum was arrested for skimming off some cool - fishing items - and selling them on E-Fraud, we mean, Ebay.
The accused has been charged with stealing museum items, some of which he later sold on eBay for $826.18.
Investigators said the items consisted of around 40 pieces of antique fishing equipment dating from the 1920s through the 1940s. All were later found at the man's home.
"I guess there's a collector's market on that stuff," an investigator remarked. Well, yeah, copper - there is.
The curator was booked on charges of grand theft and possession of stolen property and later released on his own recognizance.
So, consider this a cautionary tale about museums - they don't always do what they're supposed to do, and sometimes the things we all love so much are reduced to the status of mere commodities. It's a fact of life, if somewhat sordid.
Know who you're donating to and get the details in writing. It's the best advice we can give you.
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