Here's our latest development. Please send me any suggestions you may
have off-list to spare everyone. NB: no speculative answers, please, as
this is a serious issue.

Recently a woman called our PR office to ask for the return of two
narwhal tusks that we have on exhibit. She told our PR director that her
father lent, but never donated, these specimens in the '30s. She further
stated that, if we weren't oiling these regularly, then she would sue.

The tusks were in fact never catalogued into our mammal collection. I
reviewed the institutional archives for the 30s without finding a thing.
Finally, I found a list of the specimens that were moved off-site at the
outbreak of WWII, and the tusks were listed as the loan of our caller's
mother, with a loan date of 1929. There is no other information, but it
does appear that, based on our own indirect records, that these were
considered to be a loan. There is no documentation at all in the 1929 or
even 1028 files, where most loan and donation records are.

Now, the complicating factor 67 years later is that the species is
protected by Federal and international laws and conventions governing
marine mammals and endangered species. I do not know what the rules are
on transferring protected specimens back to the private sector, even
though the date of their collection pre-regulations is not in doubt. Nor
do I know if there is a statute of limitations on the ownership of what
has been until yesterday an abandoned loan.

Record-keeping here has been erratic until the past few years, and this
is just the most recent and serious consequence we've encountered.
Serious, responsible suggestions as to the next best step would be
appreciated. What we would really like to do would be to persuade her to
make the tusks over as donations (and, no, we ain't gonna oil 'em up,
don't worry), but we need to know legally where she and we stand. Thanks
in advance for any light you may be able to shed.

Cheers,
Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation


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|                                                                       |
|                 San Diego Natural History Museum                      |
|                          P. O. Box 1390                               |
|                San Diego, California   92112  USA                     |
|             phone (619) 232-3821; FAX (619) 232-0248                  |
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