Acquisition and Disposal Policy.

We are often asked what we collect and whether we accept items for display. All Accredited museums are required to have a written policy approved by their governing body. Here is ours:

Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum (RD7)
Governing Body: Bethlem Art and History Collection Trust

Date approved by the Trustees: 23 February 2005 (Minute No. 10/2005).
Superseded Policy: Acquisition and Disposal Policy adopted on 12 June 1997.
Date at which policy due for review: January 2010.

1. Existing collections, including the subjects or themes for collecting.

1.1. Historical. The museum's existing historical collection consists mainly of material deriving from Bethlem Hospital (the original 'Bedlam', founded 1247) and the Maudsley Hospital (opened in 1923) and Warlingham Park Hospital (1901-1999). The museum will continue to collect material which is directly related in any way to the three psychiatric hospitals and their associated institute, the Institute of Psychiatry. It is also the museum's policy to acquire material illustrative of the history, and development up to the present day, of psychiatry in its widest context, including all aspects of the care and treatment of the mentally disordered. In this context it has acquired the core collection of the former Museum of St Bernard’s Hospital (formerly Hanwell Asylum).

1.2. Art. The museum's existing art collection, which includes the Guttmann-Maclay Collection, consists mainly of work by artists who have at some time suffered from mental disorder, with an emphasis on those who were already trained or practising as artists before this period. It is especially known for the work of several artists who were patients in Bethlem Hospital, including Richard Dadd, Jonathan Martin, and Louis Wain, and of others, including William Kurelek, who were patients in the Maudsley Hospital. It is not restricted to artists who have been patients in these hospitals or in any other institution. The collection also contains other works which are of interest in the general field of psychiatry, e.g. mediumistic drawings and drawings produced during experiments with mescalin in the 1930s.

2. Criteria governing future collecting policy, including the subjects or themes for collecting.

2.1. Historical. It is intended in the long term to develop displays on more general themes associated with 'the mind', and where appropriate material will be acquired specifically for this purpose.

2.2. Art. The museum will continue to collect material within the categories already represented. For present purposes these are defined as paintings, watercolours, drawings, and creative works in all media, by artists who have suffered from mental disorder or have been influenced by some other extreme or abnormal mental experience; and other works which are of particular interest in the field of psychiatry, psychology, and related areas of study. It is acknowledged, however, that in a field where 'abnormality' is the norm, it is not possible to lay down the precise criteria by which all future acquisitions will be made.

2.3. Donations by Service Users. The museum will not knowingly acquire material by taking advantage of others, whether individuals or institutions. In particular it will not seek to obtain material from members of the public who are unaware that it may be of financial or cultural value, without advising them of this fact. Where a donation of an object is proposed by a current mental health service user it will be accepted only as an inward loan in the first instance. Such items may be accessioned after 2 years at the discretion of the curator.

3. Period of time and/or geographical area to which collecting relates.

3.1. Time. 1247 to the present day.

3.2. Geographical area. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

4. Limitations on collecting.

4.1. Constraints of staffing, spare and care. The museum recognises its responsibility, in acquiring additions to its collections, to ensure that care of collections, documentation arrangements and use of collections will meet the requirements of the Accreditation Standard. It will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as staffing levels, storage, display space and care of collection arrangements.

4.2. Constraints in respect of archives. In respect of documents and manuscripts relating to the Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital, care will be taken not to acquire material which should properly form part of the hospital's own archives unless the hospital's governing body is unable or unwilling to acquire them. Where such material is thought to come under provisions of the Public Records Acts, the appropriate bodies will be consulted. In respect of documents and manuscripts in general, care will be taken not to acquire material which might form part of the archives of any other institution or which might be of particular local significance, without prior consultation with interested parties and in particular with the appropriate local record office.

5. Collecting policies of other museums.

5.1. The museum will take account of the collecting policies of other museums and other organisations collecting in the same or related areas or subject fields. It will consult with these organisations where conflicts of interest may arise or to define areas of specialisms, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication and waste of resources.

5.2. While there are not, at present, any other full-time museums of mental illness in UK, the museum will pay particular attention to the specialisms and overlaps with the London Museums of Health and Medicine. It will ensure that, where potential acquisitions more properly fall into a related branch of medicine, the appropriate museums are notified.

6. Policy review procedure.

6.1. Periodic review. The Acquisition and Disposal Policy will be published and reviewed from time to time, at least once every five years. The date when the policy is next due for review is noted above.

6.2. External notification. The Regional Agency - presently Council for Museums Libraries and Archives (London) (MLA London) - will be notified of any changes to the Acquisition and Disposal Policy, and the implications of any such changes for the future of existing collections.

7. Acquisitions not covered by the policy.

7.1. Exceptions. Acquisitions outside the current stated policy will only be made in very exceptional circumstances, and then only after proper consideration by the Trustees, having regard to the interests of other museums.

8. Acquisition procedures.

8.1. Validity of title. The museum will exercise due diligence and make every effort not to acquire whether by purchase, gift, bequest or exchange, any object or specimen unless the Trustees or responsible officer is satisfied that the museum can acquire a valid title to the item in question.

8.2. Import / Export history. In particular, the museum will not acquire any object or specimen unless it is satisfied that the object or specimen has not been acquired in, or exported from, its country of origin (or any intermediate country in which it may have been legally owned) in violation of that country’s laws. (For the purposes of this paragraph `country of origin’ includes the United Kingdom).

8.3. International guidance. In accordance with the provisions of the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which the UK ratified with effect from November 1 2002, and the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003, the museum will reject any items that have been illicitly traded. The Trustees will be guided by the national guidance on the responsible acquisition of cultural property issued by DCMS in 2005.

8.4. Biological and geological items. The museum will not acquire any biological or geological material.

8.5. Archaeological items. The museum will not acquire any archaeological material other than remains of its predecessor buildings. It will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as inadequate staffing, storage and care of collection arrangements.

8.6. Exceptions. Any exceptions to the above clauses 8a, 8b, 8c, or 8e will only be because the museum is either:

• acting as a repository of last resort for material of UK origin relating to the treatment of mental illness; or

• acquiring an item of minor importance that lacks secure ownership history but in the best judgement of experts in the field concerned has not been illicitly traded; or

• acting with the permission of authorities with the requisite jurisdiction in the country of origin; or

• in possession of reliable documentary evidence that the item was exported from its country of origin before 1970.

In these cases the museum will be open and transparent in the way it makes decisions and will act only with the express consent of an appropriate outside authority.

9. Spoliation.

9.1. Spoliation guidelines. The museum will use the statement of principles ‘Spoliation of Works of Art during the Nazi, Holocaust and World War II period’, issued for non-national museums in 1999 by the Museums and Galleries Commission.

10. Repatriation and Restitution.

10.1. Human remains of origin outside UK. The museum’s governing body, acting on the advice of the museum’s professional staff, if any, may take a decision to return human remains, objects or specimens to a country or people of origin. The museum will take such decisions on a case by case basis, within its legal position and taking into account all ethical implications.

11. Management of archives.

11.1. Code of Practice for Archives. As the museum holds archives, including photographs and printed ephemera, the Trustees will be guided by the Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom (3rd ed., 2002).

12. Disposal procedures.

12.1. Presumption against disposal. By definition, the museum has a long-term purpose and should possess (or intend to acquire) permanent collections in relation to its stated objectives. The governing body accepts the principle that, except for sound curatorial reasons, there is a strong presumption against the disposal of any items in the museum’s collection.

12.2. Legal title. The museum will establish that it is legally free to dispose of an item. Any decision to dispose of material from the collections will be taken only after due consideration.

12.3. Items acquired with external funding. When disposal of a museum object is being considered, the museum will establish if it was acquired with the aid of an external funding organisation. In such cases, any conditions attached to the original grant will be followed. This may include repayment of the original grant.

12.4. Financial considerations. Decisions to dispose of items will not be made with the principal aim of generating funds.

12.5. Limitations of the Trust Deed. The disposal of material from the collection can, in accordance with the terms of the Trust deed, be considered only for the purpose of maintaining, improving, enhancing or extending the quality and interest of the collection. Any monies received by the museum governing body from the disposal of items will be applied for the benefit of the collections. This normally means the purchase of further acquisitions but in exceptional cases improvements relating to the care of collections may be justifiable.

12.6. Collective responsibility. A decision to dispose of an accessioned specimen or object, whether by gift, exchange, sale or destruction (in the case of an item too badly damaged or deteriorated to be of any use for the purposes of the collections), will be the responsibility of the Trustees of the museum acting on the advice of professional curatorial staff, if any, and not of the curator of the collection acting alone.

12.7. Priority for disposal. Once a decision to dispose of material in the collection has been taken, priority will be given to retaining it within the public domain, unless it is to be destroyed. It will therefore be offered in the first instance, by gift, exchange or sale, directly to other accredited or registered museums likely to be interested in its acquisition.

12.8. Advertisement of disposal. If the material is not acquired by any accredited or registered museums to which it was offered directly, then the museum community at large will be advised of the intention to dispose of the material, normally through an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal, and in other professional journals where appropriate.

12.9. Allowance of time for expressions of interest. The announcement will indicate the number and nature of specimens or objects involved, and the basis on which the material will be transferred to another institution. Preference will be given to expressions of interest from other accredited or registered museums. A period of at least two months will be allowed for an interest in acquiring the material to be expressed. At the end of this period, if no expressions of interest have been received, the museum may consider disposing of the material to other interested individuals and organisations.

12.10. Disposal recording. Full records will be kept of all decisions on disposals and the items involved. Arrangements are to be made for the preservation and/or transfer, as appropriate, of the documentation relating to the items concerned, including photographic records where practicable, in accordance with SPECTRUM Procedure on deaccession and disposal.

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