GUIDELINES FOR THE CURATION OF GEOLOGICAL MATERIALS

2.2.1.3. Purchase
2.2.1.4. Exchange
2.2.1.5. Loans
It is a fact of life that, like it or not, there is a roaring trade in geological
specimens, with the aesthetically appealing end of the market, including fossils
and minerals, commanding very high prices indeed.
As with anyone trying to sell him anything, the curator would be sensible to
bear in mind the warning 'buyer beware'. The curator, as the prospective
purchaser, should also beware his own limitations. Market pricing is a speciality
of its own, and unless he is buying regularly the curator would be well-advised to
consult a specialist colleague in, say, a national museum who may be familiar with
the current market value of a well-preserved Monte Bolca fish, a 500 gm lump of
Allende meteorite or a fist-sized cluster of crocoite crystals from Tasmania.
The documentary record of the transaction must include a receipt signed by the
seller to certify that the purchase price has been paid.
This term refers to an institution that swops 'duplicate' material (see Al.l) in
order to acquire new material. It is important to ensure that duplicate material
held by the museum which is earmarked for exchange, is of a quality that will
attract specimens suitable for your museum, and that it is held in Entry
Documentation short of full cataloguing (see B2.1). Such material is relatively
freely disposable ethically and legally.
Fully catalogued material is not available for exchange at the curator's
discretion alone (B.6.2).
Within those contraints, exchange of material can, if responsibly conducted, be
a very sensible way of spreading resources- both of collecting time and
material - around, to the benefit of institutions and the scientific community.
Documentation should record the excha~lge with the transfer of title signed by
both parties to the transaction.
Although seldom the means by which material is acquired, we include comment
here since curatorial responsibility is involved. See B6.1.1.
Loans are often said to be more trouble than they're worth. This has more than
a little truth in it. The institution receiving a loan has all the normal custodial
responsibilities (plus any extra imposed by the lender) without any of the rights of
ownership.
Generally speaking, loans are justifiable for specific finite schemes - such as a
research project or temporary exhibition. For this kind of arrangement the length
and nature of the loan is clearly defined, and documentary evidence signed by
both parties must exist to witness the fact. It is also normal for the receiving
institution to indemnify or insure the lender against the accidental loss of, or
damage to, the loan. (Though in the case of irreplaceable scientific material,
values may be considerable. See B4.4.8.3.)
Open-ended or 'permanent' loans (the last is a meaningless term) should be
avoided. The practical problems of maintaining such material and its documentation
discrete from the institution's own collections can be considerable. The
separate identity of a long-term loan can all too easily gradually disappear as
successive curatorial members of staff come and go over a span of decades. In