The Sheldon Museum will rewrite policy to formalize procedures when acquiring pieces from members of its board of trustees.
Questions about the ethics of such purchases were raised recently when board chair Jim Shook offered to sell the museum a miniature totem pole carved by Leo Jacobs and a drum made by Nathan Jackson.
Shook, who said the two pieces are worth $7,000, this week withdrew his sale offer. “It can’t be the museum that buys them. Not in this community. Resources are tight and I think it would cause a lot of misunderstanding.”
Board members Tuesday voiced support for establishing a set of procedures for such “self-dealing” acquisitions, including a written explanation of the rationale for decisions.
Member Michael Marks questioned whether the facility should adopt a prohibition on purchases from board members, but other members said that might prevent the museum from acquiring pieces that belong in the collection.
“There’s a perception (of conflict of interest) anytime there’s self-dealing, but there’s no bright line in the sand,” said board member Gregg Richmond. “I think you need to look at it on a case-by-case basis.”
Members also mentioned other museum spending to buy photos from board member John S. Hagen and to pay board member Jim Heaton to carve its totem pole and museum sign. The Hagen photos were purchased through a Rasmuson Foundation art grant.
Shook said purchases should be noticed in the newspaper.
In regard to the Shook pieces, the board directed staff to launch a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for their acquisition.
The museum will get an appraisal of the value of the pieces, which museum director Helen Alten said were important for having been made by Native artists of local importance during the early 1960s, an era that marked a local renaissance in Tlingit art.
Acquiring the pieces as a crowd-funding project will help determine the value that the community attaches to them, Alten said.
The museum makes about 500 acquisitions per year, about 99 percent of them through donations, Alten said. Shook has previously donated dozens of pieces to the museum collection.
Rasmuson Foundation art grants have allowed the museum to buy $175,000 in art from local artists in the past 10 years, but the program is limited to recently produced art. Because of their age, Shook’s pieces couldn’t be purchased through the program, Alten said.