The first thing you might want to do is check with your statewide museum organization and see if you have an abandoned property law.  If one exists in your state, it may provide you with how you can legally take possession of the object after providing proper notice of intent in a local newspaper or other medium.  I don't think your internal policy of permanently acquiring the object after five years would hold up in a court of law if the family requested the return of the item in question; especially if your museum never responded to the lender's request for confirmation of the loan.  

Jeff Tenuth
Indiana State Museum
Indianapolis, Indiana
   

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dana C. Street
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 12:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Ownership dilemma

Hello all,

We have an item in our collection which has great historic value and which we intend to use as a marketing tool.  In reviewing our accessions records we find that the object was only loaned to us back in 1948 and as far as we know was not otherwise given to us as an official gift to the collections.  We do have a letter from the donor from 1958 requesting a letter from the Museum confirming that this item was only given as a loan, in the event that any future family members may wish to repossess the item.  Unfortunately we do not have a copy of the requested letter if it was written.  There are a few family members living in the community and some feel that it is time to approach them 
about the situation but are unsure of just how to proceed.   I should 
note that our current collections policy states that items loaned to the Museum become permanent gifts to the collections after a period of five years (unless other arrangements have been made) - a scary thought in itself!  But this was undoubtedly not the case when the item came to us in 1948.  Has anyone had a similar experience who would be willing to share or give some guidance on this?

thank you,
Dana Street
-- 

Dana C. Street
Curator
Martha's Vineyard Museum
PO Box 1310  59 School St.
Edgartown, MA 02539
508.627.4441    ext.111
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www.mvmuseum.org

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