Petersen Museum sellling of Cars

The museum is still going to show hot rods, the majority of what is in the catalog are just regular cars. I think this is a smart move on their behalf. I buy and sell pre war cl***ics for a living, and believe me French cars and early bikes are where everyone should be investing if they can. Freeing up some capital and putting a nice selection of cool cars back on the street is not hurting anything. It makes me glad to know that each one will go to someone who will probably use it and enjoy the sport. I support.

 

In short there's probably nothing you can do. There's a very slim chance you might be able to have them place a stipulation on the loan that it cannot be sold but with that stipulation I doubt they'd take it. Rember, if they are a non-profit museum your car is going into the public trust and they are agreeing to essentially take care of it forever--or as long as they can make it last. For profit museum's are a completely different animal (those road side attraction type museums).

Everything has a finite lifespan and one of the museum's jobs is to prolong that for future generatons--however there's always a cost benefit that you have to consideer. Sometimes thing simply deteriorate beyond usefulness with age and the costs of conservation/preservation far outweigh the value (monetary or histotic) of the object.

Generally, that's when a museum sells after an item has been removed from the collection by (usually) a long formal process called de-accessioning For any number of reasons including relavence to mission (does it really belong), condition (is it too far gone to merrit the expense of conservation/preservation), duplication (do have more example of this same type of item). Items may be removed Once it's removed there is a pecking order of how it can our should be disposed of and in many cases sale is actully the last of those. It normally starts with "trade with another museum or non-profit.

Depending on the fine print stipulations, by taking an item in on loan, the museum is agreeing to care for it as though it were part fothe museum's collection. In the case of big, deep pocket museums, that can often mean they foot the bill for what can be very expensive conservation work. But the important thing is that they are agreeing to care for your item the same way they care for their own. The pitfall of a "permaent loan" is that it's just to mushy and it gets really messy if someone dies. I've had to work "old loans" where people made "permanent loans" in the 60's or 70's and not only have they died, but so have their kids/executors and the museum wanted to terminate the loan, but was unable to do so so we were essentially hung with the item, and it's care forever. Some states have abbandoned cutlural property laws to deal with this, but not all.

I wasn to be clear that there is no problem with loaning stuff to museums. it happens daily at museums all around the world. What you should expect is for the museum to set up a loan contract (generally a year or two, sometimes up to 5) and then at the end of the loan period you simply revisit the contract and renew the loan if both parties want to--this you can do as often as you want, but it's not open ended. You simply don'g get the tax benefit of a gift when you make the loan.

As a rule a museum will not take your stuff and accession (make it part of the collection legally) with the expectation of selling it--that's a big ethical and potentially legal no-no called "capitalization of collections." Sometimes they accept and sell in non-accessioned gifts--those things that someone wants to donate, but that doesn't meet the mission or museum quality standards (this is pretty common with estate stuff) but that's a different animal entirely and generally those funds go to collections care and maintenance, not operating costs.

Sounds like both these museums have been straight forward. One expects to use your car for parts and the other "as is," but once you've signed a deed of gift (and legally a contract isn't absolutely necessary as long as there's a do***entable intent to give and acceptance of the object --ie a string of emails or letters) and donated your car to a non--proft you have no say in what happens to it--it's a federal tax law thing. They couldn't just give it back to you even if they wanted because of the possible tax issues that would crop up from there.

I hope this answered you question. If not I'm happy to talk more here or you can contact me off the board. you can find my phone number here www.northcarolinamuseum.org that way the automated phone number hunteres won't find it too.

matt

 

Bingo. It was bound to happen, unfortunately. Bruce Meyer and his band of rich friends now feel that they are the movers and shakers of the car world, and they think that now are setting the "new" trend. The building remodel proposal is a disgrace, and Petersen's(Robert and Margie) would NEVER OK'd it if they were still alive. Meyers and the others had to wait until Margie died and all of her affairs related to the museum were settled before they unleashed their dastardly plan. I would have to think that this plan has been cooking for a long time.

Museums have to change from time to time. I totally understand that. But for a museum that was based primarily on hot rods and celebrity cars to change to a theme that appeals to a very small (usually wealthy) audience is a shame. If Meyers wanted to appeal to the wine and cheese crowd, he should have gathered his rich friends and did a takeover of the Nethercutt Museum and left the Petersen alone. The Petersen is kind of a mix of blue collar and white collar, and that drives the elitists nuts.

 

The constant pounding on guys that have become wealthy and are into cars is becoming trite here. Pete not only made money in the automotive publishing business, but promoted wildlife art through a museum as well as some of the best real estate on Sunset Blvd. His daily driver was a Rolls Royce with personalized plates he got from Fred Offenhauser that said HOT ROD. Give it a rest.