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You should have a policy on how you insurance or indemnify objects in your care. This could either be a standalone document or part of a wider collections management policy. Either way, in deciding your policy you will most likely need to consider these questions:
- Is your museum allowed to insure its collections (many national museums are not)?
- Which objects must you insure, and against what risks?
- Which objects would it be prudent to insure, and against what risks?
- What circumstances should trigger a review of an object’s cover?
- How will you insure or indemnify objects you borrow?
- How will you make sure your objects have appropriate cover while lent out or otherwise away from your museum?
- Who is responsible for arranging insurance and renewal?
- How will you keep your insurance cover up to date?
You should also have a written procedure that explains the steps to follow when managing and documenting insurance. Spectrum’s suggested procedure is a useful starting point, but however you do it, your own procedure should meet the following minimum requirements:
| Minimum requirement | Why this is important |
| Where possible, all the objects in your care, whether in your museum or away from it, are insured or indemnified according to your agreed policy. | You can recover from loss of, or damage to, your own objects.
You can compensate lenders if you lose or damage their objects. |
| You have the appropriate minimum liability sum or excess to be paid if required. | You have the financial resources to cover those sums if the worst happens. |
| Your insurance and indemnity cover is reviewed regularly, and updated as required. | Changes in valuations are reflected.
New acquisitions are covered. |
| Your catalogue records meet any standard specified by your insurer for the purpose of recovering stolen items. | You may not be covered if a valuable item is stolen and you cannot provide images and enough information to identify it. |
