I read Dr Leach's posting with interest.  I noticed he complained that
he has been trying to acquire it for years but the museum has no plans
to dispose of it.    All museums in the UK that are funded by local
government, or in fact any of any reputation, are governed by a scheme
called "Museum Registration"  -- this starts with the fact that there
is a strong belief against all disposals.  This has to be written into
the actual constitution of the museum and agreed to by the governing
body.  It is covered by "Resource", the UK government organisation for
libraries, museums, archives and galleries.

If a decision is made to dispose of an item it must be a clearly
reasoned decision which is taken by the curators and the director and
then ratified by the governing body.  It has to looked at alongside the
organisations collection and disposal policy and forward plan.  Then,
and only then, can the process of disposal take place.

Firstly, it must be offered to another Registered Museum in the UK, not
necessarily as a gift.  This has to be advertised in the professional
magazine for museum curators, "The Museum Journal."  It can be a free
transfer to a more suitable museum.  In the UK this could be somewhere
like the Musical Museum or perhaps the Victoria and Albert Museum,
which has a musical collection, or somewhere else.  Long term loan
is always a possibility to, say, a local mansion open to the public,
or another museum.

Only then can it be sold to a non-registered museum and then only by
public auction.  It is likely that such a sale could have a stipulation
that it would have to stay in the UK.

The reason for this scheme is twofold: to stop museum governing bodies
selling off the family silver, e.g., a few years ago a local council
wanted to sell a number of very famous paintings to help them modernise
a few schools.  Not a bad thing but, once sold, they are lost forever.
The scheme also stops museum curators just getting rid of things for
no good reason.

I personally would be very unhappy if it was sold out of a museum
collection.  I do, however, feel that it should be restored and I know
from my experience that funding is available for such work from
a number of organisations.  Perhaps, rather than pushing for its sale,
it would be a good idea if people got together to help raise the funds
for a professional restoration to true museum conservation standards.

So many of these instruments have found themselves moved to the States
from the UK and it would be great to have at least some left in this
country for the inhabitants of this country to listen too.  I am sure
countless children would marvel at these Welte orchestrions.

Jonathan Holmes
Penzance, UK