Personal Collection? No - Archive? Yes

Anyone feel like pitching in to buy an archive? As not only a music lover, but an analogue music lover at heart, this story really saddens me. Paul Mawhinney owns the world's largest personal record collection, amassing some 3 million records over the course of his life, but due to his ailing heath and economical issues, he is being forced to sell.  The collection has been valued at over $50 million, yet the asking price is a mere $3 million. Bargain.

Considering a Library of Congress study concluded 87% of the music in the collection is not available on the internet, is there not from a historical point of view, a burden for this collection to be bought and preserved by a body that has the resources to keep it in the condition it deserves?

Comments

[Nic]

Someone was telling me recently about two steam-buff teenagers in the 50s who noticed that the steam trains were being phased out and advertised in a paper, saying: someone must buy these and keep them for posterity. To their astonishment, donations from fellow enthusiasts flooded in (even though, as I understand it, they hadn't asked for them) allowing them to purchase a train themselves! [um, excuse me not researching this anecdote properly but me tea-break is too short]

Ideally of course, an organisation of renown would stump up the funds for the records. But failing that, an enormous web-based music-buff/librarian collective might accomplish the same thing... they'd need to apply for funding for upkeep, of course.