More than three centuries of gifts from wealthy alumni and carefully maneuvered acquisitions have left Harvard a legacy of museum treasures rivaling those of many larger collections.

Visitors to the University's 20 museums have access to millions of dollars in artifacts ranging from priceless paintings like Max Beckman's self-portrait to valuable gold and quartz crystals.

Earlier this year, the University published a booklet show-casing its vast collections of priceless artifacts. But several sources close to the museums have said in interviews last month with The Crimson that the University is not doing all that it can to protect them.

The University's museums' council, which has in the past overseen security matters, hasn't met in more than a year and has left the University museums without any collective administrative oversight.

The faculty council, which has ultimate responsibility for the collections of the Arts and Sciences museums, hasn't discussed the issue of museum security in at least 25 years, Council Secretary John B. Fox Jr said last week.

Despite this lack of coordination, museum curators praise Harvard police for their part in protecting the museums, but some say the security guards hired by Harvard should undergo extensive training and background checks before being allowed to guard the university's collections.

Finally, sources familiar with the museums said, many of the buildings which house collections do not provide adequate protection against theft or natural disasters, like fire. While most museums are designed to protect objects before saving human lives, the University museums' primary purpose is to protect its students.

The Council

In the late 1970s, Harvard established a "museum's council" to advise then-president Derek C. Bok on issues of museum security. The group met regularly through the last decade but has not met in more than a year-and-a-half. Their most recent initiative was publishing the booklet publicizing the collections.

"We have not met," said Carl A. Francis, the mineralogical museum curator and a council member, "because the chairman of the council [former Curator and Executive Director of the Semitic Museum Carney E. S. Gavin] was fired and there has been no replacement appointed by the president."

Gavin was fired after a scandal at the Semitic museum in which he was accused of violating employees' privacy in the fall of 1993.

"The museum council is a forum for museum representatives," said Francis, adding that the council had little power even when it did meet regularly.

"[It] doesn't have a lot of authority," Francis said.

Museum officials said Gavin's departure and the failure of the council to meet regularly has left curators without an official forum in which to coordinate security with the heads of Harvard's other museums.

This failure to act effectively places decision-making in the hands of the faculty council.