Private collections of museum curators

[Ron at]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anita F. Cholewa" <chole001 at UMN.EDU>
To: <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: Private collections of museum curators


> In response to Jerry Bricker ...
> Actually, discouraging or actually prohibiting staff from collecting is
> something that is brought up in various discussions of ethics for museum
> professionals.  I believe it originated with art or human artifact
museums
> as a means of preventing competition for pieces on the open market and to
> prevent "insider trading" when estates were going to release items...

Biological specimens are not _artifacts_   Artifacts are just human
manufactured "stuff" (in their own time often just yard sale items)  that
are now rare and pricey.   Type specimens are tools and should be available
to those working on these groups.  They are thus at perpetual risk (and
necessarily so) via human handling for scientific examination.  The
probation of biologists and systematists from "colleting" new material
personally and retaining it personally should be considered a sin against
science.

Ron Gatrelle