Depository of expensive fossil holotypes

[Brad Hubley]

Hans;

Is it possible to donate your specimens to a museum in lieu of an
income tax receipt?  This is a process that we follow here when private
collectors wish to donate their collections to the ROM and when we do
not have money to purchase the specimens.  The process we follow is
perfectly legal as per our federal agency and the value of the specimen
is appraised at fair market value.

Hope this helps.
Brad

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Brad Hubley
  Entomology Collection Manager
  Department of Natural History
  Royal Ontario Museum
  100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario
  Canada    M5S 2C6

  Phone:  1-416-586-5764
  FAX:      1-416-586-5553
  email:  bradh at rom.on.ca
  Visit our website at: http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


>>> Hans Henderickx <hans.henderickx at PANDORA.BE> 11/28/2005 12:04:32 PM
>>>

Dear Taxacom members,

I'm an independent researcher for the University of Antwerp (this
University has no Natural History collection). Regularly I make
holotype
descriptions of new fossil beetles, pseudoscorpions and scorpions from
my
personal amber collection. Besides there scientific value, the stones
have
a significant collector gemstone value, often over 1000 eur on the
market,
and they represent an important personal investment for me. Most
museums
are not willing to pay such amounts, I have had 'offers' of 'maximum
50
euro-there-is-no-budget). A holotype description however requires a
depository in an official museum collection, meaning that from the date
of
publication, the described fossil is no longer my property. I used to
solve this with the phrase "the specimen is temporarily in the
collection
of Hans Henderickx, but will subsequently be deposited in the Museum
National etc.", allowing me to keep and study it some more for at
least
some years. With the recent description of my fossil scorpion P.
cenozoicus gen.n. et sp.n. I encounter a problem: already after a few
weeks the Museum requests a rapid and definite archiving of the piece
in
their collections. Since I'm working on the descriptions of several
other
of my amber fossil new species, I'm facing that in the next few years,
I
have to 'give away' the most important pieces of my amber collection,
or
stop studying and describing them. How can I solve this?