For those governing and supporting museums, the old standards about the use and disposal of collections and endowments are rapidly risking obsolescence. Museums are, of course, property-rich in a manner unlike any individual, or a company with a profit motive. Works of art and endowment funds (typically cash and investments held to generate income, not to be spent) are both, in the eyes of the law, the property of museums, but there are critical distinctions. Art collections generally do not appear on balance sheets but endowments do. The basic organisational question of which property is an asset that can be legally used to cover liabilities is unique to cultural institutions. Museums on either side of the Atlantic come at this challenge from slightly different starting points. – Apollo