I asked my friend Gail Kana Anderson, who is a longtime museum registrar and now interim director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, about the insurance values they require from artists who exhibit in their museum. Here’s what she said:
We ask only for insurance (not retail) values since we are not in the business of selling art. If the artist has a history of sales, the retail value and insurance value might be the same. Otherwise, as is the case with work in our annual student exhibition, the insurance value might be the costs that went into the work.
Image: William Baziotes, Flower Head, c.1940s. Collection of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma.
(State Department Collection, Purchase, War Assets Administration)
