Hi Genevieve,
Personally, I would request a copy of the father’s will. If he bequeathed the items to the daughter that donated them and you have a signed Deed of Gift, then you should be covered. However, if the items were just part of his estate, then it would fall to the executor to distribute them to the appropriate beneficiary. The executor could have given the items to the daughter (your donor) and now the other family members are trying to make a stink because she’s not there to defend her decision.
I would stand behind my collections policy and make them prove that the donor did not have the legal right to donate the objects. If they prove that she did not have the right to donate the items, then you have to give them back. However, the museum can cite that the reason the items were returned was because the donor didn’t have the right to donate them in the first place. Though, I suspect if you require them to prove what they say, then they might forget about it. At one of my previous positions we had something similar happen and it turned out the complainer was looking for a tax deduction.
This is just my two cents and by no means legal counsel. Do you have a lawyer on your board that could advise you?
Good Luck!
Meegan Carr
Director of Collections
York County Heritage Trust
250 E. Market Street
York, PA 17403
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Genevieve Carter
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2015 2:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Return of Donated Items
Hello!
Four years ago our museum was given a small collection of World War II-related artifacts (medals, letters, photographs and a uniform) by a daughter of their original owner. This woman has recently died and her siblings have come forward claiming that she had not been authorized by the rest of the family to donate their father’s belongings to us. She was not the executor of her father’s estate. They would like to have the medals returned to the family, as it had always been their intention to donate them to another museum.
Has anyone on the list had to deal with a situation like this? Our collections policy states that we do not return artifacts to donors (or descendents), but their acceptance had been based on the assumption that the donor had the right to donate in the first place.
We have a number of World War II medals in the collection, so returning them to the family would not impinge on the breadth of the collection, but we are concerned about the message that this might send to the community if word gets out: “If you cause a big enough fuss, they’ll give you your stuff back.”
Thanks for any insight you can offer.
Genevieve Carter
Huronia Museum
Midland, Ontario
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