I'm also cringing over this. I wondered for a moment if there was a sudden desperate need to raise money, but I think the amount involved won't be enough to matter. I guess there is not much point in asking RMS what is going on.

̶T̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶i̶c̶e̶s̶.

D'oh, they already did last year. So maybe just clearing out their storage.

Insurance of collectables is an expense. The more items go up in value, the higher the insurance premiums.

Because the artifacts are not critical to FSF's core mission, raising and spending donations to insure them might not be the best use of limited resources.