Government Indemnity Scheme (GIS)
The purpose of GIS is to facilitate public access to items of an artistic, historic, scientific or technological nature.
The scheme covers loans made accessible to the public in a temporary exhibition, or on long-term loan or made available to the public for study. It also facilitates loans for study by the borrowing institution which, in turn, is likely to contribute materially to public understanding or appreciation of the object loaned.
An example might be new findings following scientific analysis of a painting or a fossil, or fresh insights into history resulting from the study of manuscripts, which are then brought into the public domain on a display label or in a museum publication or CD-ROM.
Indemnities underwrite the borrower's risk of the loss or damage to the objects while on loan to the borrower or while in transit to and from their institution. Many exhibitions could not be staged at all if the GIS was not in operation.
This is because Exchequer-funded institutions are not permitted to take out commercial insurance, while non-Exchequer-funded institutions (who can take out commercial insurance) could not afford the cost of commercial insurance necessary to cover exhibitions which typically, comprise unique, high value items. The total risk in any one year underwritten by GIS is on average about £2 billion.
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