Steve Miller, adjunct professor of Seton Hall University’s M.A. Program in Museum Professions, responds to Blind Oversight: AAMD, AAM Condone Hispanic Society’s Coin Dispersal:
You are absolutely correct when you talk about the irretrievable and irreparable loss of
the intellectual value of the Hispanic Society of America’s coin collection. Museums are supposed to be
preservation organizations and this sort of disposal is the
opposite of that.The public preservation of the 10,000 coins that are in private hands and on
loan to the American Numismatic Society [my link, not his] is not assured, though one can only
hope. As for the AAMD and the AAM, because both are membership
organizations they may need to get overall membership approval to weigh in
heavily regarding the actions of actual or potential members.The sale of the coins is due to trustee failure, pure and simple.
And, while boards may say they use income generated from disposals in accordance with AAM guidelines, how does one check
on that?