> Why would they outbid each other to waste more public or non profit money?
Because like it or not, even public and non-profit institutions are in competition with one another. Maybe not for money specifically, but prestige, notoriety and having access to single “one-of-a-kind” items. All of those bring more attention, publicity and funding.
If you want to see or review the original drafts of an author, you can only do that at the single location that has those papers and documentation. Every one of these things is worth exactly as much as they will bring in in additional funding and notoriety. If these institutions are being snowed it is because of their own hubris and overestimation of the value of the artifacts in question.
But my (limited) understanding is this sort of arbitrary pricing, valuations and “just this side of legal/ethical if you don’t ask too many questions” is par for the course in any museum/artifact business. History once it passes out of memory is all about stories. And the value of any given item is how good of a story it can be made to tell, and how that story will bring in audiences. The skeleton of a crocodile might be interesting, but not worth much. The skeleton of a crocodile that was estimated to have been alive at the end of the age of dinosaurs is a story to sell, even if to someone viewing the bones there’s no difference.
Because like it or not, even public and non-profit institutions are in competition with one another. Maybe not for money specifically, but prestige, notoriety and having access to single “one-of-a-kind” items. All of those bring more attention, publicity and funding.
If you want to see or review the original drafts of an author, you can only do that at the single location that has those papers and documentation. Every one of these things is worth exactly as much as they will bring in in additional funding and notoriety. If these institutions are being snowed it is because of their own hubris and overestimation of the value of the artifacts in question.
But my (limited) understanding is this sort of arbitrary pricing, valuations and “just this side of legal/ethical if you don’t ask too many questions” is par for the course in any museum/artifact business. History once it passes out of memory is all about stories. And the value of any given item is how good of a story it can be made to tell, and how that story will bring in audiences. The skeleton of a crocodile might be interesting, but not worth much. The skeleton of a crocodile that was estimated to have been alive at the end of the age of dinosaurs is a story to sell, even if to someone viewing the bones there’s no difference.