Fred Cane ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: The carving chair from the c. 1820 set of Regency dining chairs
: originally belonging to my great,great,great,great grandfather was donated
: by a distant relative, who had no immediate family, to a large local
: "period village" museum some time during in the late 1960s.  I have one of
: the matching side chairs and would like to the own the carving chair.

: The carving chair is not on display.  It requires restoration before it
: could be displayed.  Nothing about its family history relates specifically
: to the museum's collection policy.  Presumably, should a chair of this
: type become required for display, a similar c. 1820s carving chair with
: Ontario provenance would be equally suitable.

: Is there an ethical way for me to acquire this chair?  As far as I know it
: has not be declared surplus to the institution's needs.  However, often
: museums dispose of the items they are deaccessioning very quietly.  I own
: a c. 1825 figured maple chair which was once part of the collection of the
: Royal Ontario Museum [ROM].  It was photographed in one of its
: publications and when I noticed it at an auction preview I examined it.  I
: knew it was the ROM's chair because its accession number had not been
: removed.  The auction house simply referred to the pieces which the ROM
: had sent for sale as from an important and prestigious institution; the
: ROM was never mentioned by name, nor had the sale been advertised as
: containing material from the ROM.

: Back to my question.  I have great respect for the integrity which a
: custodial institution must have if it is to maintain public confidence.
: Indeed I consider that the chair I would like to acquire is not
: "owned" by the institution, but is being "held in trust" by the
: institution for my benefit as a member of the public and that
: this is presumably what my distant relative hoped would continue to be
: its fate when the donation was made.

: So is there any ethical way for me to approach the institution? Do I
: offer five times its market value or only double.  Money has to come into
: it at some point.  Was it George Bernard Shaw who once asked a woman
: whether she would sleep him if he gave her a million pounds, and receiving
: a positive response, countered by offering 10 shillings?  She
: indignantly replied 'what type of woman to you think I am?'
: Apparently he responded 'We already know what type of woman you are; now
: we're just dickering about the price.'

: So if I do solicit the institution and ask for the chair, is there any
: ethical way for the institution to deaccession the chair to me?

: I hope there is a way around this dilemma.  Particularly as two other side
: chairs from the set reside in another local museum in Ontario and I would
: like to "repatriate" as much of the set as possible.

:

As far as I know, there is no legal way, let alone ethical, for the museum
to give you the chair since you never owned it. If an item is
deaccessioned for whatever reason, it can only be returned to the donor
who once owned it. Otherwise, it should be publicly auctioned and you
could try to get it that way.