Hi, Beth - 

First, please forgive me for being picky , but referring to someone who is only lending something to your museum as a "donor" is confusing.   They are the owner and lender of the property, but they are not making a donation.  I think the confusion of those terms has caused a lot of mis-communication between museums and their donors and lenders over the years!   

It seems to me that if the object never entered the museum's doors, even if you have a signed loan agreement, you shouldn't need him to sign a form to terminate the loan.   A signed, dated note by the  Curator, Registrar or Collections Manager in the loan file or on the original loan agreement explaining that the loan transaction never actually took place should suffice.  That way, if there's ever a question of the object's whereabouts it's clear that it was never in your hands.  And of course, if you have copies of letters that accompanied the forms that the lender refused to sign, you have documentation to back it up.

As to your  other question,  usually a loan is taken in for a specified time period and/or purpose.  In most museums loans are the result of research, exhibit planning and other work that is generally a group or team effort.  Usually the group or team would have produced a deadline or program end date which would indicate that the loan was no longer needed.   

Several yearts ago I gathered a lot of information about deaccessioning procedures and nearly all of them involved review of the decision by a museum committee, the director, a ommitte of the board ,  the full board or even an external review committee.  The curator, however, would be a logical staff member to make a recommendation to deaccession something.

I hope some of these comments are helpful.




Sarah Wood-Clark
Museum Registrar
Kansas State Historical Society
6425 SW 6 Ave.
Topeka, KS  66615
(785)272-8681, ext. 407
Fax (785)272-8682
TTY (785)272-8683
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