Here at Vintage Mirage we offer downsizing/liquidating consultations for individuals, and families with large and small collections. We offer the information about the various aspects of recycle and reuse. The various avenues of liquidation have many names such as donations, ebay, auctions; in previous eras we would call it hand me downs or flea markets or the rag man, or the scrap collectors.

Sometimes the collections need to be sold for financial reasons and other times the goal is also to ensure the preservation of a legacy of history along with the fine hand crafted techniques.

Basically our suggestions offer options of finding new homes for loved items, often with historical significance. So often in the past people have donated their collections to museums and educational institutions thinking that these objects might be used for research, and would have a home for future generations and assured preservation.

Now in the last few years,and this Spring in New York City, more major museums and educational institutions are auctioning off their inherited and donated collections in order to raise the funds for their institutions. These vintage clothes, accessories, fabrics, textiles, and rugs will be auctioned off from a large selection of museums in a single event. The major cost of preservation in labor and space pressures these institutions to sell off categories they do not hold to be important, nor valuable.

I am appalled at the idea that families and individuals donated items to these institutions for safe keeping, and now the museums have changed their course and mission, so they will sell these items. Here is another example of reading the fine print in a contract. Perhaps these institutions should offer the originating family to have these treasures returned? Or perhaps