Loans Out Policy
The Harvard Art Museums consider loan requests for artwork from the collections to museum exhibitions around the world. Loan requests are reviewed and evaluated on the merit of the exhibition project, the relevance and availability of the requested artwork, and the borrower’s ability to meet all lending requirements.
Loan requests must be received at least 12 months in advance of the exhibition start date (15 months in advance for requests of 5 or more works). Requests received with less than the required lead time will not be considered due to the volume of requests received as well as the time required to process and prepare artworks for loan.
Formal request letters should be addressed to Dr. Sarah Ganz Blythe, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums, and submitted via email to am_loansout@harvard.edu.
The request letter should include:
- Exhibition title
- Venue(s) and dates
- A completed General Facility Report for venue(s)
- List of requested object(s) with the Harvard Art Museums’ accession number(s); please refer to our collections online
- An exhibition summary and justification
- Borrower's curator and registrar contact information
Borrowers of approved loans are responsible for all related costs including, but not limited to:
- Loan fee of $250 for first object and $100 for each subsequent object; for university museums, loan fee of $125 for first object and $50 for each subsequent object
- Fine art insurance coverage
- Conservation treatment
- Preparation (matting/framing, glazing, and mount-making)
- Packing, crating, fine art shipping
- Courier expenses
For any photographic materials, please contact our Department of Digital Imaging and Visual Resources directly via this image request form. Please indicate that your inquiry is related to a loan request. All image requests must be received at least 6 months prior to the publication deadline.