Correspondence to and from your Insurers on a. losses of artefacts from Aberdeen Art Gallery and b. Sheilhill Road

The request was partially successful.

Dear Aberdeen City Council,

1. Aberdeen Art Gallery loss of 1577 items:

a. Of the 1577 items identified as being lost or stolen from the city's art collections or damaged including Aberdeen Art gallery, how many of these were reported to the city's insurers and when?
b. How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged items are estimated to be worth a minimum of £150? How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged items estimated to be worth between £500 to £2000? How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged items were for items worth more than £5000?
b. Please supply correspondence from and too ACC and its insurers for the past 12 months concerning lost, stolen or damaged artworks.

2. Damage to private property / claims for same on B999, Sheilhill Road

a. How many homeowners have brought to ACC's attention claims of damage, dangerous areas re the above roads asking for remedial work, damages, or otherwise making good since 2021?

b. Of the above, how many such instances were reported to your insurers?

c, Obviously deleting personal data, please supply all correspondence (emails, letters, memos, meeting notes etc) to and from your insurers since 2021.

Yours faithfully,

Suzanne Kelly

Foi Enquiries, Aberdeen City Council

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Access to Information Team, Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen City Council

1 Attachment

Reference: FOI-420820840
Date of request: 09/05/2022
Title of request: Correspondence to and from your Insurers on losses of
artefacts from Aberdeen Art Gallery and Sheilhill Road

Dear Suzanne Kelly,

Thank you for your completing your Freedom of Information Request.

We aim to answer all requests within 20 working days.

You will receive a response via email and an update in [1]your self-serve
account if you have one.

For information about how we handle your request please see our [2]Freedom
of Information privacy notice.

For information about your appeal rights please see [3]Freedom of
Information reviews and appeals.

Kind regards

Access to Information Team
Aberdeen City Council | Customer Development | Customer Experience |
Customer
Marischal College | Broad Street | Aberdeen | AB10 1AB
[4]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk | Twitter: @AberdeenCC |
Facebook.com/AberdeenCC

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Access to Information Team, Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen City Council

1 Attachment

Reference: FOI-420820840
Date of request: 07/05/2022
Title of request: Correspondence to and from your Insurers on losses of
artefacts from Aberdeen Art Gallery and Sheilhill Road
Information request:

Dear Aberdeen City Council,

  

1.  Aberdeen Art Gallery loss of 1577 items:

a.  Of the 1577 items identified as being lost or stolen from the city's
art collections or damaged including Aberdeen Art gallery, how many of
these were reported to the city's insurers and when?  

b.  How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged items are estimated to be
worth a minimum of £150?  How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged
items estimated to be worth between £500 to £2000?  How many of the
missing/lost/stolen/damaged  items were for items worth more than £5000?

c.  Please supply correspondence from and too ACC and its insurers for the
past 12 months concerning lost, stolen or damaged artworks.

 

2.  Damage to private property / claims for same on B999, Sheilhill Road

a.  How many homeowners have brought to ACC's attention claims of damage,
dangerous areas re the above roads asking for remedial work, damages, or
otherwise making good since 2021?

b.  Of the above, how many such instances were reported to your insurers?

c, Obviously deleting personal data, please supply all correspondence
(emails, letters, memos, meeting notes etc) to and from your insurers
since  2021. 

Dear Suzanne Kelly,

Thank you for your information request. We have completed the necessary
search for the information requested. Our response is now detailed below.

1.  Aberdeen Art Gallery loss of 1577 items:

a.  Of the 1577 items identified as being lost or stolen from the city's
art collections or damaged including Aberdeen Art gallery, how many of
these were reported to the city's insurers and when? 

There have been no claims made in respect of items which have been stolen
or reported as missing within the last 7 years.

We are unable to provide you with information on reports to the city’s
insurers from before 7 years ago. In order to comply with its obligations
under the terms of Section 17 of the FOISA, we are informing you that we
do not hold this information.

We do not retain records for these types of claims beyond this time, as
there is no requirement to do so.

Under advice and assistance, we have records that show stolen items were
reported to Grampian Police in 1962 (8 items), 1979 (3 items), 1989 (76
items), 2001 (1 item). We assume these reports were copied to the city’s
insurers at the time but hold no records to demonstrate that this
happened.

b.  How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged items are estimated to be
worth a minimum of £150?  How many of the missing/lost/stolen/damaged
items estimated to be worth between £500 to £2000?  How many of the
missing/lost/stolen/damaged  items were for items worth more than £5000?

Please see table below.

┌─────────────┬───────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬──────────┐
│ Value │ No. Reported Missing in Jul │No. Since Found│No. Stolen│
│ │ 2021 │ │ │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────┤
│<£150 │ 1321│ 244│ 48│
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────┤
│£150 - £500 │ 188│ 21│ 23│
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────┤
│£501 - £2000 │ 47│ 8│ 11│
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────┤
│£2001 - £5000│ 16│ 4│ 4│
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────┤
│>£5000 │ 5│ 2│ 2│
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴──────────┘

c.  Please supply correspondence from and too ACC and its insurers for the
past 12 months concerning lost, stolen or damaged artworks.

There has been no correspondence with the city’s insurers over the last 12
months regarding lost, stolen or damaged artwork other that the annual
renewal. Details of the missing items report were shared with our
Insurance Broker as part of the renewal process. Due to the private and
confidential nature of renewal discussions (as they involve such things as
discussion in relation to premiums, individual valuations of items and
overall values), we cannot provide any documents in this respect, save to
say that our Insurers are aware of the report.

ACC is unable to provide you with information the correspondence from and
too ACC and its insurers for the past 12 months concerning lost, stolen or
damaged artworks as it is exempt from disclosure.  In order to comply with
its obligations under the terms of Section 16 of the FOISA, ACC hereby
gives notice that we are refusing your request under the terms of Section
35 (1) (a) – Prevention or Detection of Crime ‐ of the FOISA.     

In making this decision ACC considered the following points:

Information held within the annual insurance renewal process includes
details on the insurance values of museum objects at specific Aberdeen
City Council sites, both on display in publicly accessible venues such as
museums and galleries and other Council buildings as well as in collection
stores.  The process also records the values of museum objects currently
on loan to other museums and objects in commercial storage locations.  The
renewal process also records the location of our highest value object. 
The renewal process also anticipates the insurance values of objects
coming to Aberdeen City Council venues on loan to us from other museums
and galleries – for example touring exhibitions.  At present for security
reasons knowledge of insurance values is restricted, staff only have
access on a need-to-know basis, as we recognise releasing the information
widely places collections and staff at risk.

Releasing this information will place high insurance valuation sites at
heightened risk of theft and burglary attempts.  It will also place staff
working at these sites at heightened risk of physical threat as a direct
result of any criminal attempts, as well as increased mental anxiety
relating to the release of such information into the public domain.

The public may be curious to find out about the insurance values of the
collections located at specific sites on a year-by-year basis, however,
releasing these values via the renewal process – and in particular the
insurance values of specific locations places our collections, buildings,
staff, future touring agreements and Aberdeen City Council finances at
risk.

While it is in the interest of the public for ACC to be open and
transparent, ACC is of the view that in all circumstances of the case, the
public interest is best met by applying Section 35 (1) (a) 

2.  Damage to private property / claims for same on B999, Sheilhill Road

a.  How many homeowners have brought to ACC's attention claims of damage,
dangerous areas re the above roads asking for remedial work, damages, or
otherwise making good since 2021?

There has been 1 notification to Aberdeen City Council in respect of
damage to home.

b.  Of the above, how many such instances were reported to your insurers?

This 1 notification was reported to our insurers.

c, Obviously deleting personal data, please supply all correspondence
(emails, letters, memos, meeting notes etc) to and from your insurers
since 2021.

Given that there was only a single claim, release of this information may
lead to identification of the subject.

 In making this decision Aberdeen City Council considered the following
points:

We are of the opinion that Section 38(1)(b) applies to your request as the
information in question is personal information relating to living
individuals, who can be identified from it.

Further, Section 38(2)(a)(i) applies, as we consider that disclosure of
this information would be a breach of the first Data Protection Principle
(that personal information must be processed fairly and lawfully).

We handled your request for information in accordance with the provisions
of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

If you are dissatisfied with the way we have handled your request or the
content of it, you are entitled to ask for an appeal. You can do this from
your [1]Aberdeen City Council self service account.

For more information on your right to review, please visit [2]Freedom of
Information Review and Appeals.

We hope this helps with your request.

Kind regards

Access to Information Team
Aberdeen City Council | Customer Development | Customer Experience |
Customer
Marischal College | Broad Street | Aberdeen | AB10 1AB
[3]www.aberdeencity.gov.uk | Twitter: @AberdeenCC |
Facebook.com/AberdeenCC

Your personal data is very important to us. Please refer to [4]information
on why and how we use your data.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail (including any attachment to it) is
confidential, protected by copyright and may be privileged. The
information contained in it should be used for its intended purposes only.
If you receive this email in error, notify the sender by reply email,
delete the received email and do not make use of, disclose or copy it.
Whilst we take reasonable precautions to ensure that our emails are free
from viruses, we cannot be responsible for any viruses transmitted with
this email and recommend that you subject any incoming email to your own
virus checking procedures. Unless related to Council business, the
opinions expressed in this email are those of the sender and they do not
necessarily constitute those of Aberdeen City Council. Unless we expressly
say otherwise in this email or its attachments, neither this email nor its
attachments create, form part of or vary any contractual or unilateral
obligation. Aberdeen City Council's incoming and outgoing email is subject
to regular monitoring.

References

Visible links
1. https://integration.aberdeencity.gov.uk/...
2. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/services...
3. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk /
4. https://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/your-dat...