Museum Collections on the Move was the title of a European conference held in 2004 in The Hague, The Netherlands, about the circulation of works in museum collections – or: collection mobility. The original conference website has been converted into a digital platform for collection mobility.

The aims of the conference were, first, to explore the policies behind collection mobility in a European context. Second, to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information about innovative forms of collection mobility, and about related practical problems and their solutions. Special consideration was given to insurance issues and the development of European guidelines for museum practices and standards in relation to collection mobility.

Follow up

Based on the recommendations of the report of the European Commission on indemnity and the outcome of the conference Museum Collections on the Move and with regard to the envisaged workplan the Presidency of the Council installed a working group of experts.

Consequently, the UK presidency invited representatives from all member states to a conference held in Manchester on 28 november 2005. The conferences focussed on the following key themes:

• Facilitating mobility through Government Indemnity Schemes as a means of reducing the cost of lending (download list of contact persons for indemnity matters in sevral European counries)
• Sharing best practice between professionals to facilitate and increase lending through the use of standard procedures so that more institutions will consider lending to each other
• Building up trust between professionals through increased contact .

The six Presidencies group, consisting of the Netherlands, Luxembourg ,UK Austria, Finland and Germany will now begin work on preparing the Mobility of Collections Action Plan. The Action Plan will be finalised by October and presented for approval by EU Ministers at the Council Meeting on 13-14 Novenber 2006.