# Can donated museum items be sold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778 "2008-10-20T19:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/21 "2008-10-21T21:12:47Z")
> [@APB](#): > > No sooner had Sir Arthur Gilbert been dead for a decent interval than the trustees of the London gallery closed it down and handed the collection over to the V&A. The V&A plan to display part of it together in a new gallery within their South Kensington building, but other parts will be merged with their existing collections or displayed elsewhere. And, of course, there’s the detail that Gilbert had [claimed to have always hated the V&A](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-arthur-gilbert-729379.html), describing it as “a junk shop”. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/22 "2008-10-21T22:01:17Z")
If you’re interested in the dancing around donations, **Making the Mummies Dance** by a former director of the Met is fascinating. At the very least, you can find out why the Lehman collection is in its own wing, rather than mixed in with other paintings by the same artist. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/23 "2008-10-21T23:04:45Z")
[http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/story/442875.html](http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/story/442875.html) Only a small fraction of a museum’s collection is on display at any one time. The internet has put pictures of much of this kind of stuff on-line, and you can probably coax a curator to give you a private showing if you have credentials as an academic in the right field or a cash donation. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/24 "2008-10-22T00:32:30Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > Someone likes a word a little too much. Nope. I like - love - the English language, and constantly and consistently defend it from those who simply don’t understand its history, how it works, how it evolves, or how it is used. Really Not All That Bright, I suggest you read [Treasure-House of the Language: The Living OED, by Charlotte Brewer](http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-House-Language-Living-Charlotte-Brewer/dp/0300124295/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224635375&sr=1-2) before you start using the OED as an authority on modern English. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/25 "2008-10-22T09:27:14Z")
So, if a donation turns out to be a fake a British Museum can’t get rid of it? They have to store it forever? ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/26 "2008-10-22T22:55:13Z")
It’s actually far from obvious that an institution like the British Museum would want to get rid of any fakes they discovered in their holdings. Reasons why they would want to retain such items include: [ul]Selling it just raises the likelihood that at some point in future someone will try to pass it off as genuine again.[/ul] [ul]Judgements about authenticity are rarely absolute, so there is often at least some possibility that the determination that it’s a fake might be reassessed in future.[/ul] [ul]There is the possibility of related fakes turning up in future; someone may want the item currently in question available to compare these against.[/ul] [ul]Forgeries are usually of some scholarly interest themselves as forgeries.[/ul] On the latter point, it was the British Museum themselves who organised the major exhibition “Fake: The Art of Deception” nearly twenty years ago that is the celebrated example of examining the history of forgery in art and archaeology. Many of the exhibits involved were drawn from their own collection. Similarly, until about 5 years ago the V&A had a fascinating small gallery displaying dozens of examples of items they’d acquired over the years that were now considered forgeries. Indeed, such fakes reflect how tastes change over the decades just as much as any other category of item in the building. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/27 "2008-10-23T00:51:36Z")
Thanks **Bonzer** - points I had never considered. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778/28 "2008-10-23T13:49:47Z")
the BM does indeed have quite a number of ancient ‘fakes’ e.g. Chinese porcelain made several thousand years after its purported age (but still very old) and Grecian urns too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-donated-museum-items-be-sold/468778.md?page=1)