![]() | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(May 2015) |
"Found in collection" (FIC) is a term used by a museum to refer to "undocumented objects that remain without status after all attempts to reconcile them to existing records of permanent collection and loan objects are completed". [1] Despite the best efforts of museum staff, museums often have FIC items. This term was developed so that collections with incomplete provenance would be handled ethically and with transparency. [2] Depending on the paperwork and information accompanying the material, the museum has several choices in how to proceed.
Museums today are meticulous about the documentation they keep when accessioning new items into their collections. [3] However, this was not always the case. As the museum field professionalized so did the standard of paperwork required to accession a collection. Items can become FIC artifacts if records were not kept initially or if the documentation regarding the property transfer was lost in a disaster such as a fire or flood. Additionally, if the museum is old, it has decades of accessioning paperwork that may require its own preservation plan.
FIC collections can also be the result of long-term or permanent loans where contact has lapsed between the two parties. It is for this reason that most museums now renew their loans on an annual basis. [4] [5]
Museums require three pieces of information to accession a collection.
The most common way this is achieved is through a Deed of Gift, which states these three criteria in one document [8]
Regardless of whether or not the museum wishes to retain ownership of the item, if possible the collections staff should contact the previous owner to either obtain a deed of gift or return the collection.
In order to keep track of the FIC collection, a temporary number should be assigned that is completely different in format from the museum's accession number to avoid further confusion. Whether the item is to be accessioned or deaccessioned, it requires establishing a chain of custody, which can be started with the application of a temporary number and assemblage of any associated documentation. [9]
It should try to obtain ownership by following its state's unclaimed property laws or applicable international conventions. If during the found property process a claimant wishes to challenge the museum's tie to the collection, the claimant must support their case with evidential paperwork.
If the museum does not want to keep the artifacts due to them being irrelevant to its mission or outside of its collecting scope, it has several options. If the museum can contact the previous owner or heirs it should do so and return the collection. If the collection has no associated paperwork, the museum should follow the appropriate laws and conventions. Once it establishes ownership through that process the museum can legally and ethically follow its deaccession procedures. This may involve transfer the collection to another cultural institution, selling the collection at public auction, or if all other methods fail, destruction of the collection. [10]
The 1970 UNESCO Convention was created to provide a platform and environment in which countries could discuss situations in which cultural property may have been illegally transported. [11] Throughout history cultural property has been taken as the spoils of war or trafficked by desperate individuals in order to make a profit. For this reason museums may have to consider the 1970 UNESCO convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property when sifting through FIC collections. [12] It is important to pay particularly close attention to documentation of items that may have been acquired from conflict zones as sometimes customs forms and bills of sale are faked.
The Antiquities Act of 1906, signed by Theodore Roosevelt, was the first federal law enacted in response to a growing concern regarding the protection of cultural property. [13] The law stated that antiquities could not be removed or damaged on federal property without the express permission of the government. While not completely enforced in its day, it did set a precedent for caring for national cultural property. [14]
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) was a much needed upgrade to the 1906 Antiquities Act. It updated definitions to close loopholes and increased fines and penalties for violators. [15] If museums have FIC collections that may have been obtained in violation of the 1906 and 1979 legislation, they should seek legal advice and follow the provisions in the Acts. [16]
The Native American Graves Protection Act (NAGPRA) was signed into law in 1990 to specifically to "affirm the rights of lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations to custody of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony that are in the control of federal agencies and museums". [17] Unfortunately throughout the history of the United States, Native American cultural property and even human remains were not acquired with the consent, let alone documentation. Because of this, Native American and Native Hawaiian artifacts are often FIC. In trying to resolve these culturally sensitive FIC items, NAGPRA legislation should be followed. [18]
While most unclaimed property laws refer to unclaimed finances, the procedures regarding artifacts are similar.
A museum is a community service that displays and preserves objects of significance. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects in public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers and specialists. Compared to a library, a museum hosts a much wider ranges of objects and usually focus around a specific theme such as the arts, science, natural history, local history, and other topics. Public museums that host exhibitions and interactive demonstrations are often considered to be tourist attractions, and many museums attract large numbers of visitors from outside their host country, with the most visited museums in the world regularly attracting millions of visitors annually.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on November 16, 1990.
A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive or library, where the contents may be more paper-based, replaceable and less exhibition oriented, or a private collection of art formed by an individual, family or institution that may grant no public access. A museum normally has a collecting policy for new acquisitions, so only objects in certain categories and of a certain quality are accepted into the collection. The process by which an object is formally included in the collection is called accessioning and each object is given a unique accession number.
Repatriation is the return of the cultural property, often referring to ancient or looted art, to their country of origin or former owners.
Digital photograph restoration is the practice of restoring the appearance of a digital copy of a physical photograph that has been damaged by natural, man-made, or environmental causes, or affected by age or neglect.
An inventory is an itemized list of objects that a museum has accessioned or received via loan(s) and must be physically located by an examiner. A complete, one-hundred percent inventory, or a random inventory of the collection should be carried out periodically to ensure the museum is operating under best practices and for security purposes. The museum is legally responsible and ethically obligated for the maintenance of up-to-date information detailing the location of all objects within the collection, including loaned items and objects that have yet to be accessioned; this is stipulated by many museum associations, including the American Association of Museums.
Collection maintenance is an area of collections management that consists of the day-to-day hands on care of collections and cultural heritage. The primary goal of collections maintenance or preventive conservation is to prevent further decay of cultural heritage by ensuring proper storage and upkeep including performing regular housekeeping of the spaces and objects and monitoring and controlling storage and gallery environments. Collections maintenance is part of the risk management field of collections management. The professionals most involved with collections maintenance include collection managers, registrars, and archivists, depending on the size and scope of the institution. Collections maintenance takes place in two primary areas of the museum: storage areas and display areas.
A collection manager ensures the proper care and preservation of objects within cultural institutions such as museums, libraries, and archives. Collection managers, along with registrars, curators, and conservators, play an important role in collections care. Collection Managers and Registrars are two distinct collection roles that are often combined into one within small to mid-size cultural institutions. Collection Managers can be found in large museums and those with a history and natural history focus whose diverse collections require experienced assessment to properly sort, catalog, and store artifacts. A collection manager may oversee the registrar, archivist, curator, photographer, or other collection professionals, and may assume the responsibilities of these roles in their absence within an organization.
Collections management involves the development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture in museums, libraries, archives and private collections. The primary goal of collections management is to meet the needs of the individual collector or collecting institution's mission statement, while also ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the cultural objects within the collector's care. Collections management, which consists primarily of the administrative responsibilities associated with collection development, is closely related to collections care, which is the physical preservation of cultural heritage. The professionals most influenced by collections management include collection managers, registrars, and archivists.
An Objects conservator is a professional, working in a museum setting or private practice, that specializes in the conservation of three-dimensional works. They undergo specialized education, training, and experience that allows them to formulate and implement preventive strategies and invasive treatment protocols to preserve cultural property for the future. Objects conservators typically specialize in one type of material or class of cultural property, including metals, archaeological artifacts, ethnographic artifacts, glass, and ceramic art. Objects conservation presents many challenges due to their three-dimensional form and composite nature.
A museum/library/archival registrar is responsible for implementing policies and procedures that relate to caring for collections of cultural institutions like archives, libraries, and museums. These policies are found in the museum's collections policy, the guiding tenet of the museum explaining why the institution is in operation, dictating the museum's professional standards regarding the objects left in its care. Registrars focus on sections that include acquisitions, loans, exhibitions, deaccessions, storage, packing and shipping, security of objects in transit, insurance policies, and risk management.
Disaster preparedness in museums, galleries, libraries, archives and private collections, involves any actions taken to plan for, prevent, respond or recover from natural disasters and other events that can cause damage or loss to cultural property. 'Disasters' in this context may include large-scale natural events such as earthquakes, flooding or bushfire, as well as human-caused events such as theft and vandalism. Increasingly, anthropogenic climate change is a factor in cultural heritage disaster planning, due to rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, warming average temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events.
The documentation of cultural property is a critical aspect of collections care. As stewards of cultural property, museums collect and preserve not only objects but the research and documentation connected to those objects, in order to more effectively care for them. Documenting cultural heritage is a collaborative effort. Essentially, registrars, collection managers, conservators, and curators all contribute to the task of recording and preserving information regarding collections. There are two main types of documentation museums are responsible for: records generated in the registration process—accessions, loans, inventories, etc. and information regarding research on objects and their historical significance. Properly maintaining both types of documentation is vital to preserving cultural heritage.
A Collections Management System (CMS), sometimes called a Collections Information System, is software used by the collections staff of a collecting institution or by individual private collectors and collecting hobbyists or enthusiasts. Collecting institutions are primarily museums and archives and cover a very broad range from huge, international institutions, to very small or niche-specialty institutions such as local historical museums and preservation societies. Secondarily, libraries and galleries are also collecting institutions. Collections Management Systems (CMSs) allow individuals or collecting institutions to organize, control, and manage their collections' objects by “tracking all information related to and about” those objects. In larger institutions, the CMS may be used by collections staff such as registrars, collections managers, and curators to record information such as object locations, provenance, curatorial information, conservation reports, professional appraisals, and exhibition histories. All of this recorded information is then also accessed and used by other institutional departments such as “education, membership, accounting, and administration."
The conservation and restoration of human remains involves the long-term preservation and care of human remains in various forms which exist within museum collections. This category can include bones and soft tissues as well as ashes, hair, and teeth. Given the organic nature of the human body, special steps must be taken to halt the deterioration process and maintain the integrity of the remains in their current state. These types of museum artifacts have great merit as tools for education and scientific research, yet also have unique challenges from a cultural and ethical standpoint. Conservation of human remains within museum collections is most often undertaken by a conservator-restorer or archaeologist. Other specialists related to this area of conservation include osteologists and taxidermists.
Deaccessioning is the process by which a work of art or other object is permanently removed from a museum's collection to sell it or otherwise dispose of it.
The exhibition of cultural property is a practice used by organizations where collected objects are put on display to the public. The objects are carefully chosen and placed together to offer educational value, and often to tell a story.
Marie Clogher Malaro was an American lawyer who served as legal counsel for the Smithsonian Institution, authored two books on museum collections and the law, and was Director of the Museum Studies Program at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her work and research helped to pioneer the field of museum collections law.
Menzel v. List was a landmark restitution case involving Nazi looted art.
Repatriation is the practice of returning a cultural artifact to its place of origin. Within the context of Canada, this is often associated with institution and collectors returning cultural artifacts to their original Indigenous community. Cultural artifacts may have been appropriated, stolen, sold, or taken from their place of origin. Many of the early collectors of Canadian indigenous cultural items did so with the assumption that the culture was on the brink of destruction. Many scholars considered it imperative to obtain and collect these items before they were destroyed under the guise of salvage ethnography. This was supported by racist ideologies suggesting that indigenous cultures were primitive and therefore inferior to the culture of dominant colonial society.