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"How much is it?" or "Can we include the value in the press release?" are common questions from visitors or colleagues when museums and archives receive donations or purchase items for the collections.
It can be tricky to answer. Balancing a wish to promote sometimes high-profile acquisitions and also protecting collection items in future.
A recent decision notice from the Information Commissioner's Office might support a decision to withhold such information by curators or archivists working in the public sector.
Birmingham City Council were asked about the top ten most valuable works of art it has on display, and did not provide the information requested. It used section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act, the exemption covering a wide variety of law-related issues, arguing this would prevent prejudice to the prevention or detection of crime.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the requester appealed the decision to withhold the information about the value of individual items.
Often arguments under S31 are highly theoretical - but Birmingham's refusal cites examples of break-ins at their own sites as well as specific thefts at other museums.
In the decision notice - which upholds Birmingham's decision not to disclose which ten works are the most valuable - the Commissioner allows for parallels with previous decisions about the "mosaic effect" of disclosures. These were about empty properties. Some information was already in the public domain - but with extra detail released under FOI, a richer picture emerges.
And even though some local authorities and museums have published data about value, the Commissioner notes that they haven’t disclosed the level of detail this request asked for.
More about Birmingham Museums and the collections held.
Image (cropped) of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 2010 by Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
