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Object donation

Since the Museum of Copenhagen is dependent upon the goodwill of the citizens of Copenhagen in relation to collecting and safeguarding the city's cultural heritage, the museum finds it important to maintain a positive and cooperative relationship with you, the citizens. Following on from this, we would ask you to note that we are very interested in being contacted regarding material that might be relevant for the museum's collections. In the following, you can find information on how to go about donating objects, drawings or photographs to the museum.

Object delivery

If you have objects, drawings or photographs in your possession that you would like to donate to the Museum of Copenhagen, please contact Head of Collections, Jan Möllerström directly at janmol@kff.kk.dk or telephone no. +45 26 77 26 59.

Subsequently, you may be asked to bring a given object to the museum for further examination. Alternatively, you may initially be asked to forward some photographs of the material for clarification purposes. If you are unable to deliver the material to the museum or to forward a photograph, a member of the museum staff may be able to come out to you with a view to examining the material. You will of course be given a receipt of delivery, should you deliver material to the museum for further examination.

Donation and registration

Should the material prove relevant to the museum's collections, you will be asked to sign a Donation Declaration Form whereby ownership of the material is handed over to the Museum of Copenhagen. If the material in question is protected by copyright law, the Museum of Copenhagen will ensure to reach an agreement with the copyright holder whereby the copyright is either transferred to the museum or the museum is given sole rights in relation to its availability for public display. Subsequently, once the material has been examined by a conservator it will be registered within the museum's registration system and placed in storage. From here, the Museum of Copenhagen can easily access the material for exhibition and research purposes, not to mention in connection with external loans to other museums.  It is possible to reach an agreement, that makes the material unavailable for public display for a pre-defined period of time, if you should feel that it would be for the best. This is possible by including a proviso to that effect in the donation declaration. However, donations cannot be made subject to stipulations regarding how, or how often, the donated material is to be exhibited.

Return of irrelevant material

The material will be made available to you again should it prove irrelevant for the museum's collections. If you delivered the material in person originally, you will be asked to collect it at the museum prior to a specified date. If you are not interested in having it returned, you are welcome to request that the museum get rid of the material on your behalf. Of course, we will make sure that the material in question is returned to you at our expense, if it was originally collected by a member of our staff.

Click here for further information on how to use the museum's collections.