Abstract
With over 17 million collection items, Museums Victoria is the largest museum in Australia. Museums Victoria recognises the public benefit derived from lending and borrowing between collecting institutions and actively participates in the international loans network in order to complement and enhance the potential for learning and enjoyment for all audiences. Museums Victoria staff undertook an extensive review of policies and procedures in order to apply for approval for protection under the Australian Government’s Protection of Cultural Objects on Loan Scheme (PCOL Scheme), established to administer the Commonwealth Protection of Cultural Objects on Loan Act 2013 (PCOL Act). The PCOL Scheme provides (with some limits) legal protection—immunity from seizure—for Australian and foreign cultural items on loan from overseas lenders for temporary public exhibition in Australia. The Ministry for the Arts also released the Australian Best Practice Guide to Collecting Cultural Material in 2015. The Guide is not a mandatory code. It recommends principles and standards to apply when acquiring collection items and in part for inward and outward loans. In 2016–2017 Museums Victoria staff used the Act and its Regulation along with the Guide to substantially update and formalise previous formal and informal policies and practices, in order to demonstrate its commitment to due diligence endeavours to verify the accuracy of information before acquiring, deaccessioning, borrowing, or lending items. This paper outlines the steps we took and what we have learned since receiving approval as a registered borrower under the PCOL Scheme.
Highlights
Australia is a big continent and an increasingly significant player in the international movement of contemporary, historical, and scientific collections for exhibition and research, both incoming and outgoing.Our First Peoples possess and nurture the oldest continuous living culture in the world.Our antipodean landscapes and waters sustain unique fauna and flora and our people, of varying descent, lead and foster technological innovations, art forms, fashion, music, and culinary tastes.My foray into international loans started in 2004 as the assistant producer of the museum’s 150th anniversary celebrations
In 2016–2017 Museums Victoria staff used the Act and its Regulation along with the Guide to substantially update and formalise previous formal and informal policies and practices, in order to demonstrate its commitment to due diligence endeavours to verify the accuracy of information before acquiring, deaccessioning, borrowing, or lending items
The items were no longer on display and remained in Melbourne beyond the terms of the agreements. This was problematic for Museums Victoria (MV)
Summary
Australia is a big continent and an increasingly significant player in the international movement of contemporary, historical, and scientific collections for exhibition and research, both incoming and outgoing. The items were no longer on display and remained in Melbourne beyond the terms of the agreements This was problematic for Museums Victoria (MV). The event jeopardised the legal framework of borrowing and lending for all museums ‘“I can understand the motivation of people in Australia in trying to seize the items, but it adds to the difficulty of international lending generally,” Maurice Davies, deputy director of the Museums Association, which represents. The Museums Board of Victoria sought a review of each emergency declaration and the injunctions were dissolved and the items eventually returned to the lenders. We have been developing the State collections for over 160 years and offer them for use in exhibitions and research, and build our education and public programs around them. In September 2018, we had just over 500 ongoing, casual, and fixed term staff, and hundreds of tertiary students and volunteers
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