Mgr. Lenka Vargová, PhD.
lenka.vargova@uniba.sk
lenka.vargov6@gmail.com

¨What type of collections can we find in museums?
¨How do museums decide what to collect?
¨How do museums acquire new artifacts?
¨Should all donations be accepted?
¨Should they collect only unique, one-of-a-kind objects or also commonplace items?
¨What are some of the complications in regard to collecting contemporary objects?

¨Methods of acquisition: donation / bequest, purchase, field-collecting, exchange between museums,
loans
¨Collecting policy -  provides the framework within which collections are developed and acquired –
answering the What, Where, How, Why & When
¨Analysing by subject / discipline, or material
¨Registrar, Collection Manager – processing accessions, collection-related record keeping
¨Curator – researcher-specialist, collections care and growth, cataloguing
¨

¨Can museums dispose of their objects? Under what circumstances?
¡The object has decayed badly
¡It is a fake / wrongly identified
¡It does not fit into the museum´s collecting policy
¡To sell it to buy a better example
¡As an exchange with another museum
¡It is a multiplicate
¡Order of the state authorities
¡Restitution

¨What sort of information do we record with the object?
¡Name
¡Materials
¡Manufacture
¡History
¡Use
¡Description
¡The donor
¡Documentation
https://www.khm.at/en/objectdb/detail/89409/?offset=81&lv=list
KK_3403_8880.jpg

¨Documentation systems:
¡Registration – entry form
¡Accessioning – entered in the accessions register, accession number (year of acquisition, number
in the register), identity number
¡Cataloguing – catalogue = complete record of everything known about every object, info: name of
museum, accession number, name of object – classification, entry method & source, date, history,
location + supplementary information file

¨What is an index? What is its use? What can it be based on?
¡Donor, classification, location, provenance, artist
¨What all is part of movement control?
¨How can we physically attach the accession numbers to objects? Coin? Clothes? Sabre? Painting?
Mineral?
¨Can we put newly acquired objects directly into storage?
¨What issues might be involved in cleaning acquisitions?
¨What are some rules for handling collections?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV68mgpdsCs&ab_channel=WesternAustralianMuseum

¨What are some guidelines for storage? What environmental conditions do we have to take into
account?
¨What is preventive conservation?
¨What´s the difference between conservation and restoration?
¨How can museums cope with disasters?
¨What does collection security entail?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UQk7bKf9FI&ab_channel=thebrainscoop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnULkJRM50&ab_channel=WesternAustralianMuseum