JERSEY Heritage is reviewing its museum collection to determine which objects should remain in long-term storage and which no longer meet the criteria for keeping.
The charity said it is undertaking a deaccessioning project to assess the condition and relevance of stored items.
Items selected for removal are either in very poor condition and beyond repair, or duplicates of pieces already in the collections.
Deaccessioned objects are being offered to other heritage organisations or charities for reuse or recycling, with disposal only used as a last resort.
Senior registrar Helena Kergozou said: “This is a very large project and the first time we have undertaken the deaccessioning of our collections. We are being extremely careful and following a strict set of checks and balances before making any final decisions about what stays and what goes.”
She said earlier collecting practices were not as rigorous as they are today.
“We have 199 chairs, many of which are duplicates and some of which arrived broken. We also have ten bathtubs, including some that are beyond repair,” she said.
“We have over 300,000 pieces and it is essential that we have adequate space to properly store these pieces… It is also vital that we create room for future pieces to be added.”
The Société Jersiaise, which began assembling the Island’s museum collections in 1873, said it supported the project.
President Stuart Fell said: “It makes good sense that such objects should be withdrawn from the collections and disposed of in an appropriate manner… Jersey Heritage’s approach to this project is meticulous.”
