SUBJECT:   CONVERSION = ACCESSION?     (RE-POSTED)

Yes, I'm the one who started the discussion on "Deed of Gift =
     Accession?"  (Expert consensus on that one was "No", you
     may accept as a gift objects which you do not accession;
     but if the donor claims a tax deduction, you must hold them
     for some specified time.)
              and
Yes, I was at the AAM Session on "Old Loans" where I heard
     about the process of conversion,
              but
No,  I didn't think at the time, when all the experts were there
     in the same room with me, to put the two together and ask:

     Does Conversion entail Accession?

   OK.  Say we have these wretched old loans we would dearly love
to be free of.  Actual Notice to the lender is not possible:  we
cannot find a valid current address.  So we initiate Constructive
Notice.  We advertise in appropriate newspapers the museum's
intent to convert the objects in question if the lenders do not
present themselves and claim the stuff by a date 60 (or 90) days
hence.  We wait.  No one comes.  On the 61st (or 91st) day we:
promptly Register the stuff as Accessions.  Yet we have no
intention of keeping it in the collection.  Now the Statute of
Limitations starts running.  At the end of that time we may
proceed to de-accession the stuff and document what we did.

   I have these questions:

   Is there a name for the "61st day" by which the objects must
be claimed?

   If an object is claimed by the museum by conversion, is it
necessary to de-accession it by the same procedure as an object
accessioned with a Deed of Gift?

   Is there some action other than Accession which the museum may
take on that 61st day to assert title to the objects?  Some other
action which would also start the Statute of Limitations, but
which would not entail the De-accession process when it ran out?
Wouldn't that be easier, and certianly cleaner for the
collection records?

  I anticipate your wise counsel.
  PS: Thanks Minneapolis, I had a *Great Time* at AAM!! -S.

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   Stephen B. Ringle, Registrar             [log in to unmask]
   University of Maine Museum of Art
   5712 Carnegie Hall, Room 109              vox: 207-581-3257
   Orono, Maine   04469-5712                 fax: 207-581-3083
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