Laura Petznick asked:  I wonder if your collection policies
acknowledge
> the issue of "ultimate ownership". Surely there is a common term for
> accessioned objects that were acquired legally by museums but perhaps not
> morally? For example, how would your museum react to claims that an item
> in your collection rightfully belongs to (or should be possessed by)
> someone else?
>
        I am not sure that any of us have a word for it, but I believe that
in the U.S. the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(NAGPRA), for all its flaws, has set up a fairly good mechanism for dealing
with precisely this issue.  I also believe that it has forced museums to
face the fact that legal possession is not the be-all and the end-all.  It
establishes the principle that there are some things that it is not moral
for us to possess.

        NAGPRA forces museums to examine their collections, and their
records, to discover how the Native American artifacts in their collections
came to them, and to try to decide (with consultations with tribes) which
artifacts it is not proper for them to hold.  Artifacts are repatriated to
tribes and individuals on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the claim,
the documentation the museum holds, and the nature of the artifact.

        I believe that art museums are now going through a similar process
with art that is believed to have been confiscated from Jewish families by
the Nazis.

        So, if we accept the fact that there are artifacts that it is not
moral for us to hold, and we are willing to study our documentation and work
with a claimant on possible repatriation, there is no reason that I can see
that this could not work in other instances.

        All that is required is for people of good faith to perform their
duties, both to their institutions and society.

        Claudia Nicholson

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