Acquisition and Disposal Policy
The purpose of this policy is to set out the principles by which
the Grosvenor Museum will acquire and dispose of objects. It
is a tool to assist curatorial staff with the development of the
museum's permanent collection and also outlines policy and practice
in this area to other interested bodies. It has been written
with reference to the acquisition and disposal policies of other
local museums and in line with both the Museums Association and the
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council guidelines.
This policy will be published and reviewed every five
years. The next date for review will be December 2011.
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council will be notified of any
changes to the policy and of any implications for the future of the
existing collections arising from such changes.
Historical Background
The collections of the Grosvenor Museum are based on those of
its two founding societies: the Architectural, Archaeological and
Historic Society of Chester and the Chester Society of Natural
Science, Literature and Art. The original collections of the
two societies ranged more widely than the present
collections. In particular, the geographic areas of
collecting covered most of North Wales and Cheshire. From its
foundation the Grosvenor Museum has also housed antiquities
belonging to Chester City Council.
After World War II the collections were rationalised and the
emphasis placed mainly on collecting objects of local
interest. In 1974 the scope of the collections was further
narrowed to the area served by Chester City Council. At the
same time new county museum services were established to cover
Merseyside, North Wales, Shropshire and the remaining districts of
Cheshire (with the exception of Warrington, which retained its own
district museum).
General Principles of Acquisition and Disposal
Underlying this policy is the fundamental belief that the
Grosvenor Museum should continue to acquire objects for the
permanent collection in order to provide a full range of services
and fulfil its responsibilities to both the residents of Chester
and the wider audience of museum visitors and scholars.
Registered museums act as long-term guardians of collections which
are in the public domain.
The full Aquisitions
and Disposals policy is available in PDF 
format please click the lnk to open (requires acrobat
reader, 112KB file size)