Re: [ARSCLIST] When you die...

[Karl Miller <karl.miller@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Graham Newton <gn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
   
  ***One very important issue comes to mind which collectors probably all should address while we still are of sound mind is the following question:-
  
***When you finally croak, what happens to the collection that you have spent a large portion of your life accumulating and cataloging, not to mention the money you probably have invested in it.

***The problem is that we know what happens when an aggressive bean counter comes in looking for new space, saying "let's dump all that old crap...
   
  Graham,
   
  Hopefully Mr. Smolian will jump in here as I believe he has had some success in matching collections with institutions.
   
  From my own experience, I would ask a potential donor what their expectations might be. And, as my friends know, I am a firm believer of the notion that the "bean counters" have taken over and the chance of stopping them is slight. 
   
  For a mulitude of reasons, some of which you have articulated, (I can supply a ton of horror stories if you like) most of my friends have opted for willing their collections to the "last collector standing."  I already have a garage, and what was once a potting shed (my wife, the gardner in the family, is the understanding sort), full of a collection owned by one of my friends, now deceased. We are selling it off to benefit my record company. As for my own collection, I fully expect it to end up in a dumpster. 
   
  While I am hopeful that the "trickle down theory" will apply, and that other insitutions will, at a level proportional to their holdings, follow the lead of LoC; but at this point, I can only hope.
   
  Karl