17 Mar
2022
17 Mar
'22
1:51 p.m.
On Mar 17, 2022, at 4:22 PM, Dave McGuire via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 3/17/22 14:19, Ethan O'Toole via cctalk wrote:
>> In LSSM's case, it's a wholly-occupied 14,000 square foot commercial
storefront building that nobody lives in, in a downtown shopping district, as
distinguished from the typical private collection in a garage, basement, etc.
> Right, I know you have a real building and are open to the public and operate what I
would consider a real museum.
That's a good definition. But the fact that an organization has a building, is open
to the public, and has a separate legal identity, doesn't necessarily protect
adequately. The LCM fits that definition, I believe, yet it long acted as a gray hole,
and now seems to have gone essentially full black.
For that matter, there are examples in "traditional" musea, as in places with
paintings and sculptures in them, going rogue. I remember an infamous court case in the
USA involving a museum obliged to be in a particular town, by its founding documents, yet
it decided unilaterally to pick up and move and somehow got a court to agree it could do
so.
Another consideration is how items get removed from the collection. Often there is a
storage building that holds much of the collection, while the actual museum displays only
a fraction. That's a consideration if access is a concern. A bigger question is how
a museum can decide to get rid of ("deaccess" I think is the buzzword used)
things in its collection, and if it does so, what becomes of them.
paul