My family's home is currently a national historic site in Canada.. was
designated in 1969... I refer you to a homepage I created
http://www.netcom.ca/~faulkner/Anne.html for background...:-)  At any
rate, in 1985 I donated a portrait of my grandmother, painted by my
great-grandmother (my great-grandparents built Glanmore) to Glanmore..
When I began my inquiries further to documentation and reports about
personal family property that had been retained by the museum -
unauthorized - I wrote to the Curator asking about 2 items.  I received
a letter back stating that any contents that came from the family would
be sold.  I did not donate the protrait of my grandmother to be "sold"..
- I donated it to the site...  with the understanding that it would be
returned to the family if deaccessioned...

I was also advised by the Curator that they were in posession of 7
receipts for Phillips-Burrows-Faulkner contents.  Approximately 300
items disappeared..... to date, I have not yet seen these "7" receipts
that I requested in months and months ago....

My mother was led to believe that she was donating the contents and
would receive a tax receipt...  I won't repeat myself here, as it is all
in the homepage... deaccessioning I think should at least involve asking
the family, particularly if it had been built by them in 1883
(French-Victorian, ranked 4th in Canada of it's kind, 9,000 sq. ft...),
whether or not they wanted family items returned before sale or
transfer, i.e., I did not donate my grandmother's portrait so it could
be transferred to the Northwest Territories....

Anne

I'm sorry... I have found so much documentation, that it is very
personal and I know I must sound very strident...  I'm furious... I
found they've been selling things in yard sales!!!!  Heritage Policy...
at least in Canada, I don't think so....

Authentic restoration.... when it was designated, it had been unaltered
since it's construction.  The house was sold in 71 - opened in 73 -
after it had been "re-decorated" (and those are their words from the
Minutes of the first Board whose guiding principle was to redecorate
according to what they thought a French-Victorian home "should" look
like.  A leading restorer toured the museum shortly after it opened and
said that any atmosphere that once existed in it had been destroyed.  It
is, to this day, presented as being the "home" of J.P.C. Phillips.  It
isn't....

Families, in Canada, at least have absolutely no recourse with regard to
preservation of authenticity...  I'm sorry.. I am absolutely furious.
Letters to my mother saying she didn't what her house "looked like"?????