In the past year nearly 30,000 objects valued at over £2bn have been covered by the Government Indemnity Scheme (GIS), writes Gregory Eades.
The scheme is an essential means of providing museums, galleries and libraries with an alternative to commercial insurance, at a fraction of the cost. Its introduction, through the National Heritage Act 1980, also ensured that the public would have greater access to a wide variety of objects and works of art within the UK.
In 1985, the Museums & Galleries Commission, now Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, was first given responsibility for managing the GIS for ‘non-national’ institutions. It means that these institutions can borrow objects from other ‘non-national’ museums or private lenders and in the event of loss or damage while on loan, compensation will be paid by the government. All objects covered by the GIS must facilitate public access and contribute materially to public understanding.
The GIS has covered many exhibitions of works by major artists, including Rembrandt, Canaletto and Monet as well as British artists ranging from Gainsborough to Whiteread. As well as loans from the UK, the GIS indemnifies a range of objects from abroad, including icons from Bulgaria, mosaics from Italy and dinosaurs from China. Recent exhibitions that have benefited include Aztecs at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and a Whistler Centenary at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow. Forthcoming exhibitions include three devoted to the work of Turner, two in Birmingham and one in Manchester. Smaller but no less important is a touring exhibition of the work of the St Ives Society of Artists, which travels to Lincoln, Doncaster, Hereford, Sunderland and Newport.
Exhibitions aside, a wide variety of items which are on long-term loan to institutions throughout the UK continue to benefit from the GIS, and these include furniture, sculpture, textiles, silver, glass, books and manuscripts, jewellery and ceramics. The GIS can cover loans whilst they are in transit to and from the borrowing venue, in storage, setting up, display and dismantling. In cash terms this has real value. At standard commercial insurance rates, it saves museums, galleries and libraries around £10m a year.
There are five exclusion clauses, where compensation would not be payable:
• negligence of the owner or the owner’s agents
• war, hostilities or war-like operations but excluding terrorism, riot, civil commotion, piracy and hijacking
• the condition of the object at the time of its loan to the borrower
• a third party claiming entitlement to the object
• conservation work undertaken by the borrower, or the borrower’s agents with the agreement of the owner.
To encourage continuing responsibility by borrowers and to eliminate small claims, the GIS has a minimum liability clause of £300 for objects valued up to £4,000 and £300 plus one per cent of the total value of an object valued above £4,000. Borrowers identified as being of outstanding importance by the Resource Designation Scheme may sign up for an annual minimum liability of £5,000.
Without the GIS, many museums, galleries and libraries would not be in a position to take on loans of a high value. The scheme has played a significant role in allowing the UK public to see world-class exhibitions and loans.
Gregory Eades is Manager of the Government Indemnity Scheme at Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.
t: 020 7273 1420;
e: gregory.eades@resource.gov.uk;
w: http://www.resource.gov.uk/action/gis/00gis