I agree that the way to go is to find another museum, if possible, where
the object would fit.

Beau Harris
Registrar
Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium




>>>> casandra karl <[log in to unmask]> 8/7/2007 2:40 PM >>>
>>snip< Not the form, the letter you send to the donor
> letting them know that their item is being deaccessioned and asking them
> if
> they want it back.
>
> I'd suggest you >not< offer the item back to the donor.  If a tax receipt
> was issued at the time of donation, you'll be running into trouble with
> the CRA/IRS for returning the item.  Even if a tax receipt was not issued,
> there are bad optics surrounding the gifting of a publicly-owned resource
> (assuming your institution is publicly-owned, and not a private
> collection) to a private individual.  And, if the donor should be
> deceased, how are you to determine which of the heirs has a claim to the
> property?  All-in-all, a potentially huge can of worms....
>
> We do not issue notices of deaccessions to our donors.  Our gift agreement
> gives us the right to administer our collections in the best interest of
> the Museum, including de-accession (although that's not explicitly
> mentioned on the form).  We maintain full documentation on the deaccession
> process (photographs, review of the object's condition, provenance, and
> relevance to our mandate, signatures of curator and administrator, means
> of disposal and destination, etc.)--if any question regarding the status
> of the item should arise, that documentation serves to demonstrate we have
> acted responsibly.
>
> Our preferred method of disposal is to find another museum that's
> interested in the object, and so keep it in the public domain.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
> Esplanade Museum
> 401 First Street SE
> Medicine Hat, AB   T1A 8W2
> Tel: (403) 502-8587
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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