Valuation is a time-consuming process with a clear goal. Depending on the motive or need, valuations can be conducted item by item, for part of a collection or for a whole collection. In the case of an artistic legacy, you may want to value the whole legacy or its different components, such as the artist’s archive and oeuvre, selected works or archive documents. A valuation ensures that you can make well-considered choices and decisions, thus creating a support base for preservation and management.
Furthermore, valuation offers the opportunity to establish priorities by means of a risk analysis. Besides establishing values, this analysis will also consider the material condition of an artistic legacy. Questions such as ‘what are the storage conditions of the legacy?’, ‘is the preservation of the legacy under immediate threat?’, ‘are the archive and oeuvre damaged?’ and ‘is the legacy complete?’ crop up here. Based on the results of the risk analysis, it becomes possible in the first instance to make urgent decisions that will limit or avoid threats and factors that cause damage.
There are various valuation tools that can be used for a valuation process. On the FARO website (in Dutch), the Flemish support point for cultural heritage, you will find a list of these models from the Flemish and international heritage and museum sector. The CKV has also developed a valuation framework (in Dutch) for art archives, which builds further on the existing tools. The valuation grid is an instrument that we can use to give art archives an objectivising framework for evaluation. It enables us to embrace requests and projects, such as long-term care for the archive, accessibility (to the public or a select group) and storage, based on clear knowledge.