Starlyn,

I did a practicum at my grad school (where I received my Masters in Museum
science) dealing with FICs (Found in Collections with no accession number,
etc.) and old loans.  They are VERY sticky to deal with.  You first need to
see what sort of state laws (if any) there are dealing with old loans and /
or abandoned property.  There are usually specific steps you must follow in
order to properly take care of the situation.  Also be sure to see what your
institution has in their collection management policy about this type of
situation.  If there is nothing, I would suggest at the same time that a
policy be written up in order to better address this problem in the future.

Most of the museums that have been around a long time have had to deal with
the problem of FICs and old loans.  It was a widely accepted practice to
accept artifacts as long term (most often becoming permanent loans) loans
that eventually have to be dealt with years and years from when they were
first accepted, making things even more difficult.

You must also be very careful of how the artifacts are eventually
deaccessioned.  I hope that deaccessioning is dealt with in some sort of
collections management policy as well.  Deaccesioning is usually a touchy
subject and there are really only a few acceptable reasons for and methods of
deaccessioning. I apologize if I am reiterating things that you are familiar
with, it's just that especially in a small town  -- one must be extremely
careful how things are handled.

I hope this helps!  I apologize for not being able to give you specifics as
the law varies from state to state and policies vary from museum to museum.
I wish you the best of luck and patience as this can take quite a long time
to completely resolve.

Sincerely,

Ginger M. Young, Registrar