Estate Planning - Sell or Donate?

[drcy]

I did archive work for a museum and can advice two things about donating to a museum. One pick one where the material is relavant to to the museum. The one I worked for had a narrow historical focus and some of the stuff was not in alignment.

The other is see how the museum documents their stuff. While all stuff can't and won't be displayed, some museums these days record everything they receive in a library-like computer database, many that are accesable to the public online and picture the items. This means that anything that isn't displayed at the museum can be researched and viewed online, and used by students, historians etc in person-- and not just sitting in boxes in dusty back rooms. You want a museum that does this. The museum I worked for did this and part of my job description was assessing and documenting donations. Though all the non-displayed items were securely housed in a special room and a student or historian needed appointment/permission to access the material in person, the non-displayed items were documented and ordered in a library-like style with all the items searchable on the museum's computers. It was very much like a library-- which was a good thing for the donors.

I should add that that the historical museum I archived for was part of an educational center, and the financial value of the items donated was not important but the historical relevance. It was not like consigning to a big auction house where the donor had to wonder "Is it worth enough for them to want it?"