Sally,

California DOES indeed have an abandoned property law, which applies to all
museums in the state, both public and private.  The museum is obligated to
send notice to lenders of expired loans.  If notice is received and not
acted upon by the lender within three years after receipt of notice, title
transfers to the museum.  When I was a Registrar, I was Vice-Chair the
Professional Practices Sub Committee (AAM Registrars) which did a survey of
state abandoned property laws in 1991.  The results of our work was
published in the fall 1991 issue of  _Registrar_ (Vol. 8, No. 2)

The cite is State Statute #1899 to 1899.11, enacted 1983. California Civil
Code.  (In legal talk it's called a cite, not citation.)  With that cite,
any Law Librarian should be able to find the law.  It's good to have the
exact wording of the law whenever possible.  Check with Univ. of San Deigo
Law Library.  Let me know if you have questions.

Cheers,
HBC


*****************************************
Henry B. Crawford        Curator of History
[log in to unmask]     Museum of Texas Tech University
806/742-2442           Box 43191
FAX 742-1136             Lubbock, TX  79409-3191
*********All opinions expressed are mine**********