Although this discussion has veered off into the direction of loans, I want to say a few things about the original topic--how to deal with requests for the return of donations. First, I want to say that I have little patience with donors' heirs and descendants who want to contravene gift decisions made by the donor during his or her lifetime. I think that takes a lot of crust. Would they also think they have a right to demand the return of a wedding or birthday gift their parent (or ancestor) gave to a private individual just because they lust after it? If they can prove that the donor didn't have full ownership of some family heirloom and had no right to donate it to the museum in the first place, of course that's a different matter. But merely wanting to have an object, now in a museum collection, because it allegedly has family heirloom value would cut no ice with me. Repressing the urge to tell them to take a hike, I'd try to convince them that preserving the object in the museum's collection is an appropriate way to honor the family. I have always felt that it's a great mistake when curators and registrars do not state up front (and in the deed of gift or gift agreement) that the museum cannot guarantee exhibition of a gift. As far as I can tell, this omission occurs most of the time in many museums. Donors do need to be educated by the museum about this, during the acquisition process. It is a fact of museum life that a rock-solid guarantee of public display of a gift, whether permanent, occasional, or temporary, is rarely possible, and we should have the guts to say so. I think it's a shame (practically a scandal) that museums can't agree to make such disclaimers the norm. Since it isn't yet the norm, I suppose everyone is afraid to go out on a limb and be the first to tell the truth, fearing that such candor will scare donors off and lead them to seek out another museum that isn't so frank. I've seen situations in which even artifacts collected for a specific exhibition didn't make the final cut and couldn't be included, leading to great disappointment for donors who had been led to believe that their gifts definitely would be displayed--all because the museum didn't explain that there are no guarantees. Donors need to understand that the production of an exhibition involves negotiations over issues of space, design, theme, logistics, narrative flow, etc., and that some objects--including some that the curator fully intended to show--may be eliminated for one reason or another. Of course, the other side of the coin is that some objects which were collected primarily for study purposes may end up being selected for display years later, however un-exhibitable they may have seemed at first blush. A donor who is specifically courted and solicited for a gift in an exhibition-driven transaction may well feel frustrated if the gift ultimately is rejected from the exhibition. In situations in which the donor's desire and expectation of display in a specific exhibition is intense, a curator might be wise to make the transaction a loan to be considered for display, then converting it to a gift when and if it actually goes on exhibit. While we're telling donors we can't guarantee exhibition of their gifts, it seems to me that it would be nice if we routinely informed them when their gifts actually do go on display. One recent donor of mine, who understood why we couldn't promise display, asked for a stipulation in the deed that she or her heirs be notified if we ever DID display it publicly. I was not permitted to add such a stipulation, however, on the grounds that it would be too difficult to enforce, unfairly committing my unwitting successors to honor such an agreement. But I think this would not be a problem if such practices were more frequent and normal. I was told that such a notification requirement would produce a hardship for future staff due to possible changes of address and difficulting in locating a donor or heirs, but my answer to that is to further stipulate that it is the responsibility of the donor or heirs to provide updated contact information to the museum to facilitate exhibition notifications. After all, what is so difficult about sending a donor a form letter stating that a donation is scheduled either for temporary or indefinite display? I think such procedures, if standardized, would alleviate much confusion and many hard feelings. Potential donors who dream of seeing their donations on display in a museum setting, of course, have every right to shop around in order to locate the institution which seems the most likely to display them. But I think museums need to be much more careful about being honest and above board in negotiations with donors, telling them--and stipulating in gift agreements--that they cannot guarantee exhibition of a donation because of the vicissitudes of the museum business. Even if a donated object truly is a central artifact in a planned exhibition, and you're in a position to say so to the donor, occasionally an exhibition gets cancelled due to lack of funding or other factors over which the curator has no control. While I'm complaining about greedy or demanding donors, I nevertheless want to add that too many museums don't, in my opinion, treat their donors right when their objects do go on display. I repeat my statement that I think donors or their heirs should be notified about plans to place their donation on display, whenever possible. And they should receive label credit in the exhibition, whether in a separate object label or in a general donor list (unless of course they prefer anonymity, which is something else that ought to be established in a gift agreement). I've been troubled by the notion, which seems to be increasing in the museum world, that donor credits in exhibitions are unnecessary. There was a time, I think, when donor credit lines in exhibits were taken for granted. I sympathize with museum staff who are afflicted with sloppy record-keeping of the past--missing gift and loan agreements, vague agreements, inadequate identification of provenance, etc. The problems which arise from bad practices should amply demonstrate how important good gift and loan agreements are. We have a responsibility to our collections and our donors to make sure that new transactions are properly documented and that all the bases are covered. David Haberstich ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . 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