Our gallery houses a collection of artworks as well as an archive of artists’ personal records. Occasionally, materials that could be construed as artworks (i.e., pages from sketchbooks, partially finished works, maquettes, drafts of artworks, etc.) make their way into the archives and the issue of whether these items are best suited for the art collection holdings or the archival holdings can be tricky to determine.

Has anyone on the listserv run into similar issues? If so, what criteria do you use make this decision? Has your institution written any sharable documentation or policy on this specific appraisal problem? Sharing any helpful resources you’ve used in the past to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help.