Benefits Of A Procurator

Museums are physical manifestations of history. A procurator has the difficult task of selecting which artifacts and works of art will be placed in a museum. The most important things for a procurator to keep in mind when choosing piece are the balance between the profitability of a piece and it's educational value and by what means a piece is acquired.
A museum's purpose should not only be to make a profit. A procurator should not chose a piece because he believes it will attract customers, rather his priority should be what can be learned. It would be impractical for a museum to disregard money entirely, as museums are businesses. The proper balance between educational value and profitability must be maintained. Mary Miley Theobald argues
If the procurator focuses solely on the educational value of his museum and pays no attention to profit, the museum will have a difficult time keeping its doors open. If a procurator's focus where only on making money, his museum is no longer a place for learning and admiring pieces of history, but becomes a gift shop. Theobald also argues in Museum Store Management, "If the shop's only reason for being is money, then the museum is operating a gift shop rather than a museum store and it has little justification for existence." A museum should not be established so that those who established it can become increasingly wealthy. Charles Wilson Peale,
If an artifacts is a replica and the museum advertises it as being real, that is false advertising. If the museum, however, were to make it known that the piece was a replica, there would be no problem. For example, The David, the 17 foot tall marble statue carved by Michelangelo, currently stands in the Galleria dell' Accademia, but it's replica stands in the Piazza della Signoria. The two statutes are identical and one would never know which was the replica had he not been told. Now, does seeing the real David or its replica change the viewer's experience? Of course, seeing the David carved by Michelangelo allows the viewer to experience a tangible piece of history, for a price. The replica has the same educational value as the original. The viewer can still learn about the artistic preferences of the time period, Michelangelo's personal artistic choices and the emotions Michelangelo was trying to invoke. National Museum of the American Indian states on its website, "It is the first National museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, history, and arts of the Native Americans...the museum works...to protects and foster their cultures by reaffirming traditions and beliefs, encouraging contemporary artistic expression, and empowering the Indian voice." An institution so dedicated to the study and exhibition of a culture is bound to have a few replicas in its