Federally-owned collections held in a depository can certainly be
deaccessioned from the museum collection, but they still remain federal
property. We are facing this situation in terms of repatriation, in which
repatriated objects will be deaccessioned from the museum, but still must go
through the Federal property disposal process. This has the potential of
further complicating the repatriation process and requires close
coordinated effort between federal and museum staff.
        Mike Lewis
        University of Alaska Museum