Mary:

Regarding contacting original family members before deaccessioning an item: I
believe that this is a step required in deaccessioning if you follow the
procedure outlined in the AAM publication "Museum Ethics". It's been a long
time since I read the book, but the issue recently came up at my museum and
we did in fact notify the family of the original donor to see if they wanted
the items back before proceeding further.

Jeannine Finton

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