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The Registrar's Dilemma

The Registrar's Dilemma

As an independent collections manager/registrar, I have this fantasy/nightmare about meeting with a new private collector client, and with the ink still wet on the NDA, I greet a famously stolen object, like the Vermeer from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, in the parlor of their Upper East Side townhouse in New York when I visit their collection for the first time. A decision confronts me: report the work and face a lawsuit for breaking my confidentiality and confidence with my client and who knows what else, versus remaining silent and, consequently, excusing the actions that led to the acquisition of the object.

The Third Party 1: The Bookend Courier

The Third Party 1: The Bookend Courier

Depending on insurance, object value, condition, and/or indemnity requirements, hiring third party supervisors to serve as a bookend couriers* may improve care, prove more economical than airfare/hotel/per diem required for traditional couriers, and radically reduce the carbon footprints.