Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

B.I · 27th May 2005, 08:05 PM

the intention of the original post was always in favour of museums as a whole, and i found it hard to write in fear that it may become ammunition against the institutions.
i know many of the museums here, and the curators are as passionate as any collector i have met. the museum in question was the same, but their problem was time. they dont have funds to taken on new staff, and so the whole museum is run by a small core of curators who do a tremendous job, given that they only have 24 hours in a day.
how many private collections have you seen piled on top of each other, or stored badly. when you visit a friend, when are you asked to sign documents and wear gloves before picking up a weapon.
the original statement was an unfortunate circumstance that cant be helped. we have a large 'hoard' of weapons, borne from many donations over many years. these cant be disposed of, and so all they can do is their best to keep them in storage, along with everything else.
i cannot begin to stress how much money and care was put into building the reserve storage of the major museums, and i would hate for anyone to think these pieces are kept in old boxes under a table.
the museum in question had all these pieces in another place for some time, until a proper place could be found for them. now they are in a controlled environment, but it will take a while before they have time to open all the boxes and attemopt to converve the pieces, beofre putting them away again.
with the amount of pieces they have, it would be a permanent job for a team, and once they finish, i'm sure they would have to start again.

27th May 2005, 08:05 PM	#28
B.I Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 485	the intention of the original post was always in favour of museums as a whole, and i found it hard to write in fear that it may become ammunition against the institutions. i know many of the museums here, and the curators are as passionate as any collector i have met. the museum in question was the same, but their problem was time. they dont have funds to taken on new staff, and so the whole museum is run by a small core of curators who do a tremendous job, given that they only have 24 hours in a day. how many private collections have you seen piled on top of each other, or stored badly. when you visit a friend, when are you asked to sign documents and wear gloves before picking up a weapon. the original statement was an unfortunate circumstance that cant be helped. we have a large 'hoard' of weapons, borne from many donations over many years. these cant be disposed of, and so all they can do is their best to keep them in storage, along with everything else. i cannot begin to stress how much money and care was put into building the reserve storage of the major museums, and i would hate for anyone to think these pieces are kept in old boxes under a table. the museum in question had all these pieces in another place for some time, until a proper place could be found for them. now they are in a controlled environment, but it will take a while before they have time to open all the boxes and attemopt to converve the pieces, beofre putting them away again. with the amount of pieces they have, it would be a permanent job for a team, and once they finish, i'm sure they would have to start again.