Museums solicit loans of art, artifacts, ephemera, and specimens to enhance temporary and permanent exhibitions. Museums are tasked with caring for these incoming loans in the same way they care for their own collections, which includes creating concise documentation and consistent tracking throughout the duration of the loan. CatalogIt includes a simple and comprehensive “Loan In” profile to help museums of all types and sizes track and document incoming loans to ensure these collections are cared for professionally and comprehensively.
I. Process:
Incoming loans generally fall into distinct, established categories:
- Exhibit Loans: Shorter term loans of objects in connection with exhibitions organized by the museum
- Long Term Loans: Loans of objects for exhibition in the core (permanent collection) galleries. (Note- long term loans should not be taken in for the purpose of storage)
- Temporary Loans: Loans of objects brought in for consideration of acquisition or intended for study by the museum
Since there are so many moving parts related to an incoming loan, creating clear policies and procedures is key for tracking and managing your museum’s process.
In this MasterIt article, we have compiled many of the considerations your institution should include in your policy and procedure documents. These considerations will not only help you draft your own set of policies, they will also help you more easily understand the many steps an incoming loan entails. As with any policy and procedure, it is important that you tailor the specific recommendations and information to your particular needs, staffing, resources, and projects.
Policy:
There are many considerations when determining the suitability of an incoming loan, including:
- Curatorial/collections judgment regarding relevance of the object(s) to the museum’s mission and relation to other objects already in the museum’s collections
- Consistency with the intellectual integrity of the exhibition
- Conservation evaluation of physical condition of the object(s)
- The museum’s ability to maintain and preserve the object(s)
Objects should never be borrowed for personal use by staff under any circumstances. Objects should only be borrowed if the museum can properly store, exhibit, and care for them.
It is important that staff examine the lender’s relationship to the institution to determine if there are potential conflicts of interest or an appearance of conflict. Any real or perceived conflict of interest should be avoided at all cost.
Museums may borrow works for exhibitions that are used as “props” and not installed in a conventional manner. In these cases, loan agreements should clearly state the use (e.g. books meant to be handled or objects meant to be touched) and include an appropriate “hold harmless” statement regarding damage related to unconventional use or installation.
Procedure:
In order to initiate an incoming loan and prepare loan paperwork and contracts, the museum must first gather the following information:
- Name of and contact information for the lender
- Purpose of loan
- Description of incoming objects
- If a traveling exhibition, theme or focus of loan
- Loan start and end dates
- Exhibition title, if appropriate
- Anticipated delivery or shipping dates
- Detailed shipping and transportation arrangements
- Anticipated costs including loan and shipping fees
- Value of each loaned object for insurance purposes
- Preferred credit line
- Any special conditions or stipulations such as installation considerations
Questions to consider when approving an incoming loan:
- How does the loan promote and support the objectives and purposes of the museum as outlined in the museumʼs mission statement?
- Has the purpose of the loan been clearly defined? Is this an exhibition loan? Is this a loan in consideration of a future gift?
- Does the lender hold clear title of the object(s) included in the loan and the legal right to lend?
- Are there potential issues of cultural sensitivity inherent in the use of the objects by the museum?
- Does the physical condition or size of the object(s) create any associated potential risks?
- Are there associated risks with the loan that are beyond the ability of the museum to manage?
- Does the museum have the financial resources (staff time, budget, etc.) to implement the loan?
Additional required information:
- Required shipping and transportation arrangements and payment
- Insurance requirements
- Agreement on length of loan (loans should not not exceed two years but may be renewed if needed)
- Potential copyright issues in the use of the object(s) by the museum
The museum should identify a point person who is responsible for the loan. Whether registrar, curator, or collections manager, that person is responsible for serving as the point of contact for managing the incoming loan as well as ensuring that agreement conditions are met, and initiating renewals of loaned objects as needed.
Staff is also assigned to oversee, coordinate, and advise on shipping and packing of the loaned objects, creating condition reports, and fulfilling all negotiated requirements regarding care, handling, and mounting of objects.
Returning an Incoming Loan:
Museums should take great care in returning loans to the rightful owner. Loans must be returned only to the person(s) listed as contacts on the loan agreements. In the event that this is not possible (through divorce, death, etc), the museum must do everything it can in order to identify the duly authorized agent of the owner. The museum must be provided with reliable written proof of the agent’s authorization.
It is a fundamental duty of the museum to record all terms, arrangements, activities, and contracts associated with the return of every object in its possession. In all cases, the museum must follow the lender’s requirements while at the same time maintaining their fiduciary and professional responsibilities per current established professional standards.
Loans that cannot be returned to the lender in a reasonable length of time, through the fault of the lender, may incur storage fees payable by the lender. Within the United States, all loans abandoned by the lender fall under that particular state’s Abandoned Property Laws. It may be necessary to review your state’s abandoned property laws in order to determine what steps are to be taken in the event that you are unable to return a loan to its rightful owner.
Please visit this Blog Post to read more about issues that can arise with Incoming Loans. Continue below to learn how CatalogIt can help you implement your incoming loan policies and procedures and easily track the loan process in your museum.
II. Using CatalogIt to Manage Incoming Loans:
There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to incoming loans. CatalogIt helps manage and track incoming loans simply and comprehensively with use of the “Loan In” profile. The “Loan In” profile enables you to track the lender, conditions, purpose, shipping, installation, condition, and all the associated legal paperwork related to the loan with ease. It also allows you to track the entire loan in process from the time the loan is requested to its approval, and from the time the loan is shipped and received, to when it is returned to the lender. You are also easily able to link your incoming loans to the exhibitions that they are related to.
It all starts with creating a “Loan In” profile for the incoming loan you are processing. Select the “Loan In” icon from the “Profiles” menu:
From there, select “Create New Loan In.” Enter all the pertinent information for this loan, just as you would add the documentation for an accession, including attaching all related documentation (correspondence, shipping records, the executed loan agreement, etc.):
Not only can you add the lender information, you are also able to easily track the status of the loan every step of the way:
If this is an incoming loan for a temporary exhibition, you are also able to easily link the exhibition to the loan. From the “Exhibition” profile for the exhibition you are borrowing the work for, add this “Loan In” to the “Related Incoming Loan” expansion panel:
After the profile is created, enter the specific objects that are part of that loan. Start by creating the entry just as you would create any entry in your collection, using a loan number instead of a standard accession number.
Instead of attaching this entry to an accession, you will associate the related Loan In profile with the record. The “Intake” expansion panel is where you’ll find the ““Loan In” profile. You are also able to easily relate the object with the associated Exhibition:
The ability to manage all aspects of the incoming loan process by using the “Loan In” profile in CatalogIt is key to simplifying this cumbersome task. Storing all documentation one place saves time, creates an efficient workflow, and enables users to project manage this multi-step process.
As always, go to the MasterIt Resource Page for more CatalogIt how-to articles.