Access to and sharing the POLIN Museum's collection

The POLIN Museum collection is available for research, exhibition and dissemination purposes. We make the collection available to the general public in the form of the Permanent Exhibition, temporary exhibitions, cyclical presentations of our own collection, in Resource Center, the Educational Centre, in the form of publications and different popularisation activities via the Internet. Below, there are the terms and conditions for sharing the exhibits and archival material from our collection.

Sharing the POLIN Museum's collection

1. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews lends its collection to other cultural institutions based on current legal regulations issued by the Minister of Culture.
2. Institutions interested in borrowing items from the POLIN Museum's collection (for use) are encouraged to submit a written request to the Director of the Museum at least 6 months before the planned date. In exceptional cases, we will try to consider a request submitted late.
3. The requests can be sent by post to the address of the POLIN Museum, as well as electronically in the form of a scan (details below).
4. A letter with the request to share the collection should contain:
    
   • details of the institution sending the request to share the collection,
   • purpose of borrowing (e.g. exhibition, deposit, research project, studies, conservation),
   • planned period of borrowing,
   • list of items (should include: registration number and basic registration data of the item),
   • facility report, completed and signed by the management of the applicant institution (or an authorised person)  - a sample report (short and extended version) is available in the appendix.
     
     For exhibitions, the application should also include:
      
     • exhibition title and description of the content,
     • contact details of the curator, the person in charge of organising the exhibition, the exhibition cataloguer,
     • information on planned reproductions/publications or a request for access to digital images of the items.
     • zgody na użyczenie zbiorów udziela Dyrektor Muzeum POLIN na podstawie rekomendacji kierownika działu zbiorów, kuratorów zbiorów, konserwatora i inwentaryzatora.
5. Permission to lend the collection is given by the Director of the POLIN Museum based on the recommendation from the head of the Collection Department, the curators of the collection, the conservator and the cataloguer.


6. Sharing the collection is possible based on signing the lending agreement and protocol of delivery and acceptance.


7. Costs:
   
   Borrowing the items from the POLIN Museum's collection by state and local cultural institutions is free of charge; however, the borrowers are obliged to provide at their own expense:
    
   • appropriate materials for packing and transport of the objects (in accordance with the Regulation of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of 2 September 2014 on protecting museum collections against fire, theft or other danger that might result in their damage or loss, Dz.U./ Journal of Laws/of 2014, item 1240),
   • appropriately trained staff to pack the items,
   • courier for the transport,
   • armed convoy in the territory of the Republic of Poland, depending on the value of the transported items,
   • appropriate storage and exhibition conditions for the borrowed items (in accordance with the principles included in the Regulation of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage),
   • all-risk insurance of the items, "from nail to nail" (the insurance is not required in the case of lending the collection to Polish state and local government museums). For lending abroad, insurance is essential in all cases.

Depending on the specificity, state of preservation and value of the shared items, the borrower may incur optional costs:

• item maintenance costs (if the items require conservation treatment),
• framing costs (passe-partout, frames - applies to, e.g., drawings, graphics),
• costs of a business trip, meals and possible accommodation of an employee of the POLIN Museum during transport/assembly/disassembly of the items.