Valuing historic items

Where a qualifying charity receives the money, a bidder may generally deduct only the amount paid above an item's fair market value, and that value must be disclosed at the time of the transaction. For a society that is straightforward on most of the catalogue and dangerous on one part of it.

The easy part

• Reproductions and prints — printing and framing cost, plus a reasonable margin. Documentable
• Research items — what a professional researcher or genealogist charges locally for comparable work
• Tours and talks — a comparable guided tour rate
• Local goods — retail

The part to be careful about

A society's volunteers frequently know antiques well, and donors know they know. You will be asked to say what a donated piece is worth so the donor can claim it.

Decline, warmly and consistently. Record what the donor tells you the item is, describe it accurately in the listing, and let their own adviser handle substantiation. A society that starts valuing donated antiques has taken on something it does not need and cannot insure, and it will be asked again by everyone who hears about it.

Where the item came from the collection

If your board has approved disposal of a duplicate or out-of-scope object, get an independent view of its value rather than setting one internally — a dealer or auctioneer in the county will usually give an informal opinion, and it protects the board from a later question about whether the society sold something too cheaply.

Record the basis and who gave it, in the minutes.

Sentiment is not value

A framed print of the mill will sell for well above its printing cost to somebody whose grandfather worked there. That is the community supporting the society, and the excess over the stated value is exactly what the disclosure exists to identify.

State the honest value and let the bidding do what it does.

General information, not legal advice for your society. Ownership, donor conditions and deaccessioning are fact-specific and depend on your own records and governing documents — your board and, where the society holds public collections, the municipality decide how any of this applies.