Sounds to me as though you own it,
Astrida. You have documentation of the donor’s intent, and your museum’s
acceptance; and you have possession of the artworks. The only question might
involve those pieces that the collection committee did not accept. Did his
sibling have any children?
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From:
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010
8:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] donor intent
question
Good morning everyone—
I’m in the process of going
through NH’s museum abandoned art legal process, but there’s
nothing in the law that deals with this situation:
Several years ago, we were given 20-30
paintings, drawings and prints by a gentleman whose primary motivation was a
tax break (he was not otherwise an art collector; there was a time where a
small group of donors collaborated with each other on buying art in order to
get tax breaks by offering it to us and he was one of them. We’re very
glad they’ve stopped as the whole thing was questionable and awkward.) At
any rate, I have plenty of correspondence to and from him discussing the
potential gift, which our collection committee had voted on and had accepted
almost all of. He left the works with us, but was waiting to actually sign the
Gift Deed until he sold a particular parcel of real estate. Subsequent attempts
on our part to contact him as time went by had no result, and in our most
recent attempt we discovered that he had passed away. He was unmarried with no
children, and his only sibling and both parents are also now gone. He never did
actually sign a Gift Deed.
So my question is: since we have proof
of gift intent, can we go ahead and accession the works? With no signed deed,
how do we prove/have paperwork for ownership? Or do I need to attempt to find
out if he had a designated heir and start the whole process over again?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Astrida
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Astrida Schaeffer, Exhibitions and
30 Academic Way
603-862-0310
FAX: 603-862-2191
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