Collections development policy

This policy describes the approach to be taken in the acquisition and management of collections items pertaining to the National Football Museum.

1. Relationship to other relevant policies/plans of the organisation

The museum’s mission and vision are:

Mission:

England’s National Football Museum exists to house and harness the power of football, to share stories that influence, to showcase culture and involve and motivate people to creatively engage.

It’s the place to experience football in all its glory. It’s the place to experience why Football Matters.

Vision:

From 2024 we will invest in an incremental capital project to transform how we deliver our visitor experience to ensure everyone can explore why Football Matters.

  • From a museum building, to a creative space
    • From housing collections, to creating experiences
    • From attracting visitors, to engaging communities
    • From a casual visit, to improved wellbeing
  • The governing body will ensure that both acquisition and disposal are carried out openly and with transparency.
  • By definition, the museum has a long-term purpose and holds collections in trust for the benefit of the public in relation to its stated objectives. The governing body therefore accepts the principle that sound curatorial reasons must be established before consideration is given to any acquisition to the collection, or the disposal of any items in the museum’s collection.
  • Acquisitions outside the current stated policy will only be made in exceptional circumstances.
  • The museum recognises its responsibility, when acquiring additions to its collections, to ensure that care of collections, documentation arrangements and use of collections will meet the requirements of the Museum Accreditation Standard. This includes using SPECTRUM primary procedures for collections management. It will take into account limitations on collecting imposed by such factors as staffing, storage and care of collection arrangements.
  • The museum will undertake due diligence and make every effort not to acquire, whether by purchase, gift, bequest or exchange, any object or specimen unless the governing body or responsible officer is satisfied that the museum can acquire a valid title to the item in question.
  • The museum will not undertake disposal motivated principally by financial reasons.

2. History of the collections

  • The Museum was established in 1995 when the museum attracted a Heritage Lottery Fund investment of £9.3 million to acquire the FIFA-Langton collection and open a museum telling the national story of the game in 2001.
  • In 2003 the museum obtained funding support from DCMS and The Football Foundation that enabled it to offer free entry and at the same time ‘nationally styled’ status was given by the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council. The museum moved to Manchester in 2012, receiving core funding from Manchester City Council. In 2019 it moved to a charging model for non-MCC residents.
  • The FIFA-Langton Collection forms the basis for the museum’s existence. Other large collections that have been acquired in the early years after opening the museum are the Harry Langton collection, the Football Association and Football League Collections.
  • Since the museum’s inception, the majority of new, single object acquisitions are added to the museum’s People’s Collection, which remains the fastest growing collection in the museum today.
  • After moving to Manchester and opening new galleries in 2012, the National Football Museum acquired the UEFA Library collection. The museum’s core collections were awarded Designated Status by the Arts Council in 2013.
  • Since 2012 the museum was awarded a HLF grant to purchase the Chris Unger History of Women’s Football collection to address some of the gap in the museum’s collections of the history of women in football. An HLF Collecting Cultures grant enabled the museum to increase its holdings of art, sculpture and photography. In 2019 the Littlewoods Pools collection was permanently transferred by Sportech plc after being loaned to NFM for a number of years.
  • In 2019 the museum made a pledge to increase its representation of women in football to 50%.
  • In 2020 the museum developed the concept of the ‘Football Heritage Collection’, an umbrella term that recognises the dispersed nature of football’s heritage, which is held at NFM (via both our core collection and loans), by national football bodies, and in local clubs, museums and other locations. NFM’s vision is to bring together the objects and archives that form the canon of football’s history and best tell the story of our national game. The museum will become the curators of collections held by key football bodies and collectors to ensure that heritage is expertly catalogued, curated and accessible to the public.
  • Since 2020 the museum’s collections development has been actively focused on contemporary collecting especially around representing women and minority

genders in football, and experiences around LGBTQ+ and the Global Majority. Our Contemporary Collecting Strategy sets out our approach to contemporary collecting in more detail (see also 3.2.9).

3. An overview of current collections

  • The National Football Museum aims to portray all aspects of football and reflect the material culture of football. The collections cover the experiences of clubs, players, officials, supporters and all concerned with the game at different levels. The museum collections focus on the social history aspects of the ‘People’s Game’ and its influence on all sections of society from origins and early beginnings to global popularity. Since its pledge for 50/50 representation of women in football, NFM has actively collected contemporary material related to clubs and players in the Women’s Super League, international competitions and historical objects related to former players, coaches and administrators.
  • The National Football Museum has what is widely considered to be the world’s finest collections relating to the football history, art, design and photography. The collection numbers over 40,000 objects relating to football and the social history of the game and includes the following:
  • Programmes and fanzines: The National Football Museum owns hundreds of examples of football programmes illustrating league and non-league clubs and national and international competitions. The fanzine collection comprises over 1,000 examples from all over the country. The collection also holds publications that explore football culture, fashion and art.
  • Trophies: the large collection of trophies spans over 120 years with the Turton Cup from 1874 being the earliest trophy in the collection. Other trophies include the oldest surviving FA Cup used from 1896 to 1911, retired Football League trophies on loan from the Football League such as the original Championship trophy 1890, Division 3 North and South shields, Barclays and Canon League trophies and Play-off trophies. The museum displays the replacement Jules Rimet trophy commissioned by the English FA in 1966 as well as the 1938 English Schools FA trophy and several trophies relating to the women’s game such as the Women’s FA Cup and the 1923 Barcelona Cup. The collection also holds official replica trophies of the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Premiership trophy.
  • Equipment: the collection contains shirts, shorts, socks, boots, balls and shin pads from 1890s to the present day and illustrates the changes in equipment and technology over the decades. As well as players’ and managers’ clothing, the museum also holds referees’ equipment.
  • Objects relating to fan culture, behaviour and activism: a large part of the National Football Museum collection relates to supporters and match day ephemera, including tickets, programmes, fanzines, mascots, football pools tickets, banners and rattles as well as ceramics, biscuit tins and general club merchandise through the ages. It also consists of fans’ collections like

cigarette cards, Baines and other collectible cards, autographs and scrapbooks. The collection is particularly strong in fans’ match day clothing and replica shirts reflecting changes in design and fashion

  • Photography and film: there are very early photographs of university, league and international teams as well as players, match line ups, stadiums and fans at the game. The National Football Museum also holds official FIFA World Cup photographs and has on loan some of the photographic collection of photographer Stuart Roy Clarke. The museum owns the ‘Kicking and Screaming’ film archive with interviews of players, managers, officials and fans that formed the basis of the television programme of that name. The collection also comprises of early women’s football photography as well as photography of women’s football in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Art: the museum holds a large collection of artwork ranging from an early depiction of village football ‘The Football Game’ by Thomas Webster, 1839, to Michael Browne’s recent ‘The Art of the Game’ painting of Eric Cantona, 1997. There are several entries from the FA’s Football and the Arts competition in 1953 in the collection such as ‘The Game of the Year’ by Ithell Colquhoun. Moreover, the museum has a collection of ceramic and spelter sculptures and figurines and other decorative items. From 2017-2019 the museum acquired a large amount of art, sculpture and photography through an HLF Collecting Cultures project.
  • Library and archive: the large reference library at the museum’s research site in Preston holds general football history books, biographies, club histories, yearbooks, magazines and historical football books. There are archives of the FA and Football League including minute books, gatebooks and player records as well as club archives such as Preston North End FC and Bury FC. The National Football Museum received the donation of the UEFA library of books, journals and DVDs on European competitions and also holds archives of academics such as Wray Vamplew and Jean Williams.
  • Oral history: The National Football Museum has started to actively extend its oral history collections, with interviews of fans and players as well as journalists. This collection will provide an insight into themes that are otherwise difficult to collect with material culture and also gives the museum the opportunity to use different voices talking about the experience of

football.

  • Contemporary Collecting: The National Football Museum is actively collecting material around contemporary topics and trends in football, especially around representation of women and minority genders in football, LGBTQ+ and the Global Majority. This includes interviews with and objects from players in the Women’s Super League, the Premier League, local clubs such as Manchester Laces and supporters’ groups. It also seeks to expand the photography collection. Our Contemporary Collecting Strategy sets out our approach to contemporary collecting in more detail.
  • The collection includes the following:
  • The FIFA-Langton and Harry Langton Collections – closed collections of over 4,000 objects covering the early history and social history of football and 1,200 historic books, acquired with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
  • The UEFA Library Collection – over 8,500 items relating to European Championships and the history of UEFA, donated by UEFA .
  • The Football Association Collection and Archive – approximately 1,000 objects covering the history of the world’s oldest football association, part-donated and part-loaned. Since 2020 the museum has received further loans of the 1863 FA minute book and at risk items that were moved from Wembley to better storage at NFM.
  • The Football League Collection and Archive – 1,400 objects on loan from the world’s oldest football league.
  • The People’s Collection – an amazingly rich and diverse collection of objects and ephemera related to the game, donated and loaned to the museum by members of the public, footballers and their families, private collectors and others as well as actively collected by the museum. This collection comprises of more than 10,000 objects.
  • The Littlewoods Collection – approximately 1,000 objects relating to the history of the leading football pools company, permanently transferred in 2019.
  • The Chris Unger History of Women’s Football Collection – over 2,500 objects relating to the history of the women’s game purchased with the assistance of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
  • In 2023 the museum received the Players’ Union collection held by the Players’ Foundation of several hundred objects. This diverse collection includes playing equipment, international caps, art and ephemera.

4. Themes and priorities for future collecting

  • England, as the birthplace from which association football has spread to the rest of the world, will continue to be the focus for collecting. The museum’s collections will explore football’s development from the early ball games played around the world, through to the beginnings of the professional game in the UK, and football’s subsequent global popularity through the English lens.
  • At the heart of collecting will be the social impact of the national game, which has been a key element in shaping society of this country. The museum’s collecting will focus on collecting material to reflect contemporary football, contemporary fan culture, LGBTQ+ and Global Majority experiences of football, and aims to increase its representation of women and minority genders’

involvement in football to 50%. Collecting will also focus on representation and diversity of the game at all levels.

  • The collecting focus is on the social history of football but will also look at football’s relationship with other relevant subjects such as science, technology, art and the media. The museum will continue to develop its collection of art, photography and design and will also build a collection of born-digital material as many developments and responses to football are now only expresses on- line.
  • In general terms the principles that underlie the collecting of objects are:
  • National and/or international importance. If they have a local or regional focus, they must reflect a national trend or significantly influenced the game’s development.
  • Potential for display, learning, web activities or research.
  • Significant in relation to English football and / or England’s role in the development of the sport throughout the world, from its early beginnings to the present.
  • Fill gaps in the collection, in particular:
    • Objects illustrating the diversity of football and objects representative of all levels of the game
    • Items from major tournaments such as FA Cup finals, World Cups and European competitions not already covered, including the Premier League and Women’s Super League.
  • Specific selection criteria:
  • Representative: The object should represent an aspect of football, popular culture or the social history aspects of the game.
  • Artistic value: Artefacts and artworks demonstrating different techniques and styles as well as good quality, inclusive and environmentally responsible design, relating to significant artists or documenting major events or individuals in football.
  • Authentic: Replica items will not be acquired for the permanent collection, unless the replica is of an object of remarkable significance. Replica items may also be acquired for use in the Education Handling Collection.
  • Unique: The object should be unique, the only one of its type in existence, or tell a unique story.
  • Age: The museum collects objects and archives relating to the entire history of football, from the early versions of the game played around the

world, the start of the professional game in Britain, and football’s subsequent global popularity up to the present date.

  • Geographical Relevance: The National Football Museum collects objects relating to English football. It is not a museum devoted to a single club, therefore will not focus collecting on one particular team or region. The National Football Museum will collect items relating to non-English football players playing in England. The National Football Museum will also collect material that relates to English players who play outside of England and international tournaments in which an English club or the national team have taken part and significant items from past World Cups.
  • Relational Value: The object adds to or completes an existing collection at the National Football Museum, or helps to interpret that collection.
  • Innovative: The object represents a change or development in football or society (this can be technological, cultural or political).
  • Reference: The object can be compared with a newer or older equivalent in the collection, allowing comparisons to be made.
  • Condition: Objects will not normally be acquired if they are in a generally poor condition or irreparable damage has occurred to them. Objects which are in a fragile condition and thought to be of importance for the collections will be collected and appropriate remedial conservation will be given. Textiles and associated material will be checked and monitored for any signs of infestation during a period of quarantine.
  • Public & Emotional value: The object tells a story or reflects someone’s experience of football, as part of the national story.
  • Education Collection: Objects and ephemera will continue to be collected, with the agreement of the donor, that can be used by education staff in Children’s Trails, the Handling Collection, Loans Boxes and for general outreach work. The objects in the Learning and Communities Collection are not part of the accessioned permanent collection.
  • Education Collection Criteria:
  • Context: Objects for education should have the relevant information to put the object in context. Where did the item come from? Who owned it?
  • Illustrative value: Objects for education should be used to illustrate a theme, idea, process, structure or object.
  • Handling Value: Objects should illustrate types of materials.
  • Duplicates: If an object is offered to the museum, of which there is already an example in the permanent collection, it may be offered to the Education Collection to avoid duplicates in the permanent collection. All donations will be processed and logged by the Collections Team before being transferred to the Education Collection.
  • Resources: Acquisitions shall be made only insofar as the resources of finance, staff, storage and conservation allow. Items may be refused on this basis alone where curatorial staff consider these resources to be lacking.
  • Objects not collected: The National Football Museum does not collect objects of purely local interest and which are not of national or international importance or illustrate national trends. Objects that fall into this category will be offered to more appropriate institutions such as relevant club museums or local history museums.
  • Digital Collections: NFM’s future collecting priorities open up opportunities for increasing its holdings of digital material (both born-digital and digitised). To ensure that these opportunities are maximised the museum will undertake to consider how digital collections can further support NFM’s collecting priorities, to develop its digital collections management processes, and to review how digital approaches can increase access to, and engagement with, collections.

5. Themes and priorities for rationalisation and disposal

  • The museum recognises that the principles on which priorities for rationalisation and disposal are determined will be through a formal review process that identifies which collections are included and excluded from the review. The outcome of review and any subsequent rationalisation will not reduce the quality or significance of the collection and will result in a more useable, well managed collection.
  • The procedures used will meet professional standards. The process will be documented, open and transparent. There will be clear communication with key stakeholders about the outcomes and the process.
  • All objects offered to the National Football Museum go through stringent acquisition procedures to be accepted into the museum’s permanent collections. Only in rare cases the museum may de-accession and dispose of an object if it falls into one or more of the following categories:
  • The object is a duplicate of another object.
  • An object is replaced by the same object of better condition.
  • The object is unsuitable for retention and can be disposed of without detriment to the public, i.e. it is no longer relevant or useful to the purpose of the museum.
  • The object has deteriorated beyond usefulness for the purposes of the collections, because of damage, physical deterioration or infestation by destructive organisms and if it cannot be conserved or preserved within a reasonable time scale or with the use of available resources.

5.3.5. Although the object was accessioned, it can clearly be demonstrated that it does not fall within the guidelines set by our Collections Development Policy or Contemporary Collecting Strategy and, therefore, does not fall within the museum’s collecting remit.

  • In the above cases, responsible, curatorially-motivated disposal may take place as part of the museum’s long-term collections policy and in order to increase public benefit derived from museum collections. The museum follows disposal procedures as outlined in section 16.

6. Legal and ethical framework for acquisition and disposal of items

The museum recognises its responsibility to work within the parameters of the Museum Association Code of Ethics when considering acquisition and disposal.

7. Collecting policies of other museums

  • 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 specialism, in order to avoid unnecessary duplication and waste of resources.
  • Specific reference is made to the following museum(s)/organisation(s):
  • The Scottish Football Museum, Hampden Park, Glasgow
  • The Welsh National Football Collection (administered by Wrexham Museums Service)
  • People’s History Museum, Manchester
  • Club museums

8. Archival holdings

  • The National Football Museum holds an archive of material relating to football governing bodies such as the Football Association and the Football League as well as a small amount of club archives. The archives comprise minute books, annual reports and player appearance records. The museum has a direct relationship with the organisations and accepts new additions to the existing archive from time to time.
  • For any archive acquisition consultation takes place with Lancashire County Records Office and the Greater Manchester County Records as well as other local or regional archives where applicable. The management of archives is guided by the Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom (third edition, 2002).

9. Acquisition

The process for agreeing acquisitions is:

  • 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 governing body or responsible officer is satisfied that the museum can acquire a valid title to the item in question.
  • Offers sent to NFM (passive collecting) are discussed at a 6-weekly Acquisitions meeting by representatives of Collections and Programming, chaired by the Collections Manager. Objects recommended for acquisition are signed off by the Director of Content.
  • The focus of active contemporary collecting is agreed by the Content Team and signed off by the Director of Content for the coming year. We will consult with colleagues and with interest groups to ensure that the focus is both reflective of the gaps in our collection and responsive to current societal issues. Most of the museum’s active collecting is carried out promptly and rapidly by individual members of the team according to the focus and themes of collecting agreed.
  • The sign-off limits for purchases are as follows:
  • Under £100: Collections Manager sign-off, provided there is budget remaining within agreed allocation (otherwise this would count as unbudgeted spend and would require sign off from two members of SLT)
    • £100 – £999: Director of Content sign-off, provided there is budget remaining within agreed allocation (otherwise this would count as unbudgeted spend and would require sign off from two members of SLT)
    • £1,000 – £24,999: Director of Content sign-off with CEO as counter- signatory (assume that this is unbudgeted spend so follows usual procedure, with proviso that CEO counter-signs)
    • Over £25,000: Trustee sign-off
    • 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).
  • 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 governing body will be guided by the national guidance on the responsible acquisition of cultural property issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2005.

10. Human remains

As the museum holds or intends to acquire human remains under 100 years old, it will obtain the necessary licence under the Human Tissue Act 2004 and any subordinate legislation from time to time in force.

11. Biological and geological material

As far as biological and geological material is concerned, the museum will not acquire by any direct or indirect means any specimen that has been collected, sold or otherwise transferred in contravention of any national or international wildlife protection or natural history conservation law or treaty of the United Kingdom or any other country, except with the express consent of an appropriate outside authority.

12. Archaeological material

  • The museum will not acquire archaeological material (including excavated ceramics) in any case where the governing body or responsible officer has any suspicion that the circumstances of their recovery involved a failure to follow the appropriate legal procedures.
  • In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the procedures include reporting finds to the landowner or occupier of the land and to the proper authorities in the case of possible treasure (i.e. the Coroner for Treasure) as set out in the Treasure Act 1996 (as amended by the Coroners & Justice Act 2009).

13. Exceptions

Any exceptions to the above clauses will only be because the museum is:

  • acting as an externally approved repository of last resort for material of local (UK) origin.
  • acting with the permission of authorities with the requisite jurisdiction in the country of origin

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. The museum will document when these exceptions occur.

14. Spoliation

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.

15. The Repatriation and Restitution of objects and human remains

  • 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 (unless covered by the ‘Guidance for the care of human remains in museums’ issued by DCMS in 2005), 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 and available guidance. This will mean that the procedures described in 16.1-5 will be followed but the remaining procedures are not appropriate.
  • The disposal of human remains from museums in England, Northern Ireland and Wales will follow the procedures in the ‘Guidance for the care of human remains in museums’.

16. Disposal procedures

  • All disposals will be undertaken with reference to the SPECTRUM Primary Procedures on disposal. The NFM Deaccessioning and Disposal Procedure details the exact process and sign-off levels.
  • The governing body will confirm that it is legally free to dispose of an item. Agreements on disposal made with donors will also be taken into account.
  • 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 and a proportion of the proceeds if the item is disposed of by sale.
  • When disposal is motivated by curatorial reasons the procedures outlined below will be followed and the method of disposal may be by gift, sale, exchange or as a last resort – destruction.
  • The decision to dispose of material from the collections will be taken only after full consideration of the reasons for disposal. Other factors including public benefit, the implications for the museum’s collections and collections held by museums and other organisations collecting the same material or in related fields will be considered. Expert advice will be obtained and the views of stakeholders such as donors, researchers, local and source communities and others served by the museum will also be sought.
  • A decision to dispose of a 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 or for reasons of health and

safety), will be the responsibility of the governing body of the museum acting on the advice of professional curatorial staff, if any, and not of the curator or manager of the collection acting alone.

  • Once a decision to dispose of material in the collection has been taken, priority will be given to retaining it within the public domain. It will therefore be offered in the first instance, by gift or sale, directly to other Accredited Museums likely to be interested in its acquisition.
  • If the material is not acquired by any Accredited museum to which it was offered as a gift or for sale, then the museum community at large will be advised of the intention to dispose of the material (for example through a notice on the MA’s Find an Object web listing service, an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal or in other specialist publications and websites as appropriate).
  • The announcement relating to gift or sale 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 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 giving priority to organisations in the public domain.
  • Any monies received by the museum governing body from the disposal of items will be applied solely and directly for the benefit of the collections. This normally means the purchase of further acquisitions. In exceptional cases, improvements relating to the care of collections in order to meet or exceed Accreditation requirements relating to the risk of damage to and deterioration of the collections may be justifiable. Any monies received in compensation for the damage, loss or destruction of items will be applied in the same way. Advice on those cases where the monies are intended to be used for the care of collections will be sought from the Arts Council England/CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales/Museums Galleries Scotland/Northern Ireland Museums Council.
  • The proceeds of a sale will be allocated so it can be demonstrated that they are spent in a manner compatible with the requirements of the Accreditation standard. Money must be restricted to the long-term sustainability, use and development of the collection.
  • Full records will be kept of all decisions on disposals and the items involved and proper arrangements 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.
  • Disposal by exchange. The nature of disposal by exchange means that the museum will not necessarily be in a position to exchange the material with

another Accredited museum. The museum will therefore ensure that issues relating to accountability and impartiality are carefully considered to avoid undue influence on its decision-making process.

  • In cases where the governing body wishes, for sound curatorial reasons, to exchange material directly with Accredited or non-Accredited museums, with other organisations or with individuals, the procedures in sections 16.1-5 will apply.
  • If the exchange is proposed to be made with a specific Accredited museum, other Accredited museums which collect in the same or related areas will be directly notified of the proposal and their comments will be requested.
  • If the exchange is proposed with a non-Accredited museum, with another type of organisation or with an individual, the museum will place a notice on the MA’s Find an Object web listing service, or make an announcement in the Museums Association’s Museums Journal or in other specialist publications and websites (if appropriate).
  • Both the notification and announcement must provide information on the number and nature of the specimens or objects involved both in the museum’s collection and those intended to be acquired in exchange. A period of at least two months must be allowed for comments to be received. At the end of this period, the museum must consider the comments before a final decision on the exchange is made.
  • Disposal by destruction. If it is not possible to dispose of an object through transfer or sale, the governing body may decide to destroy it.
  • It is acceptable to destroy material of low intrinsic significance (duplicate mass-produced articles or common specimens which lack significant provenance) where no alternative method of disposal can be found.
  • Destruction is also an acceptable method of disposal in cases where an object is in extremely poor condition, has high associated health and safety risks or is part of an approved destructive testing request identified in an organisation’s research policy.
  • Where necessary, specialist advice will be sought to establish the appropriate method of destruction. Health and safety risk assessments will be carried out by trained staff where required.
  • The destruction of objects should be witnessed by an appropriate member of the museum workforce. In circumstances where this is not possible, for example the destruction of controlled substances, a police certificate should be obtained and kept in the relevant object history file.