# When the Holder Is Not a Museum, the Accession Number Is Replaced by Law > Fourteen records here are held by a cathedral, a diocese, a cathedral works, a charitable trust or a monuments agency. What replaces the accession number is charity law, heritage law or a Church Measure, and in one case it is stronger. > The Study - 2026-09-25 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/the-holder-that-is-not-a-museum/ ## Key points - Fourteen records here are held by something other than a museum, and five of them carry no accession number at all. The absence is not a gap in the research: an accession number is an artefact of museum registration, and a cathedral never registered anything because the object was simply always there. - What stands in for the number is a legal instrument. The Hereford Mappa Mundi has a trust deed, the Shroud of Cadouin has a Monument Historique classification of 2 December 1935, the Apocalypse Tapestry sits in a state monument collection, and English cathedral treasures have a statutory inventory. - In England that inventory is a duty under the Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011. Section 24 requires a cathedral chapter to compile and maintain an inventory of objects of architectural, archaeological, artistic or historic interest, and to report annually to a fabric advisory committee certifying its accuracy. - The disposal route is law rather than a professional code. Section 7 of the same Measure requires Commission approval before a chapter sells, lends or disposes of a treasure, and requires the chapter to offer the British Museum, or another registered museum the British Museum nominates, the opportunity to buy it. - The strongest protection in this group names its own successor owner. The UNESCO nomination for the Mappa Mundi records that in the event of the trust being dissolved, ownership of the map passes to the British Library, London. No accession number does that. ## Five objects here have no accession number because nobody ever accessioned them ## A UNESCO nomination form asks the questions a museum register answers ## The trust exists because the cathedral tried to sell the map ## English cathedral treasures have a statutory inventory, not a curatorial one ## Disposal is governed by statute rather than by a professional code ## A diocese, a cathedral works and a monuments agency each solve it differently ## Six holders, and what each one has instead of a register ## The object may also still be doing its job ## How to cite an object that has no number ## Land the point ## Why this archive is free to read An absent accession number marks the edge of the museum system and not the edge of the evidence. Five objects here have no number and all five have a documented legal status: a trust deed, a heritage classification, a state monument collection or a statutory inventory certified every year to an outside body. The map at Hereford is the case that settles it. It has never been in a museum, its own chapter once proposed selling it, and the deed written in answer to that names the institution which inherits it should its owner cease to exist. Measured by what it guarantees about the object's future, that is better documentation than a register entry. ## Questions **Why do some objects in museums-like settings have no accession number?** Because an accession number records a museum taking an object onto its register, and these objects have never been on one. A cathedral, a diocese or a cathedral works did not acquire the object in the museum sense, so there was no accession to number. **Who owns the Hereford Mappa Mundi?** The Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust, a charity, with Hereford Cathedral Library as custodian. The United Kingdom's UNESCO Memory of the World nomination records those as two separate entries, and records that ownership passes to the British Library in London if the trust is ever dissolved. **Can an English cathedral sell one of its treasures?** Only through a statutory route. Section 7 of the Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011 requires the chapter to seek the Cathedrals Fabric Commission's approval and, before selling or otherwise disposing of the object, to afford the British Museum or another registered museum nominated by the British Museum an opportunity of purchasing it. **Does a cathedral keep any inventory of its objects?** Yes, and it is a legal duty. Section 24 of the Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011 requires a chapter to compile and maintain an inventory of objects of architectural, archaeological, artistic or historic interest and to report annually to its fabric advisory committee certifying the inventory's accuracy. **Why was the Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust created?** To stop a sale. The Trust's own account states that the Dean and Chapter faced a long-term structural deficit in the late 1980s, needed an endowment of at least GBP 6,000,000 and identified the Mappa Mundi as the item to sell, and that the National Heritage Memorial Fund endowed a newly formed trust instead, with assistance from John Paul Getty Junior. ## Sources - [1] United Kingdom nomination to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, 'Hereford Mappa Mundi', ref. 2006-32. PDF downloaded and read directly on 25 September 2026 rather than through a summariser, because a first automated read of it returned two statements the document does not make. Source for section 3.2 (approximately 1626mm x 1346mm, one sheet of vellum, dated c. 1290 to c. 1310), for field 5.1 owner as the Hereford Mappa Mundi Trust, field 5.2 custodian as Hereford Cathedral Library, and field 5.3 legal status including the verbatim clause that in the event of the trust being dissolved ownership passes to the British Library, London. - [2] Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011, section 7, 'Treasure'. Read 25 September 2026. Source for the requirement of Commission approval before a chapter sells, lends or disposes of such an object, for the obligation to afford the British Museum or another registered museum nominated by it an opportunity of purchasing, for the fourteen-day notification duty on the cathedral administrator and for the requirement that the object be recorded and designated as treasure in the inventory in accordance with the Commission's directions. - [3] Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011, section 24, 'Inventories'. Read 25 September 2026. Source for the chapter's duty to compile and maintain an inventory of objects of architectural, archaeological, artistic or historic interest in which it has a property interest, custody or an entitlement to possession, for the annual report to the fabric advisory committee certifying accuracy and describing alterations over the preceding twelve months, and for the designation of objects of outstanding interest by the committee after consulting the Commission. - [4] Mappa Mundi Trust, 'About the Trust'. Read 25 September 2026. Source for the late-1980s structural deficit in Hereford Cathedral's finances, the endowment requirement of at least GBP 6,000,000, the identification of the Mappa Mundi as the item to sell, the National Heritage Memorial Fund's lump sum endowing the newly formed Trust, the assistance of John Paul Getty Junior, and the opening of the New Library Building by Queen Elizabeth II on 5 May 1996. - [5] Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011, table of contents. Read 25 September 2026, for the Measure's structure and the titles of sections 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 24 as cited here, including the establishment of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England and of fabric advisory committees.