Genevieve,

Last year at the Illinois Association of Museums conference, there was a session on legal issues in museums and this exact topic came up (the issue of other family members contesting donations, etc). I suggest you reach out to the Illinois State Military Museum, who presented that session (217-761-3910). They have dealt with similar issues, most famously regarding Santa Anna's fake leg that resides in their collection. Good luck!

Jen Hart
Lake County Discovery Museum

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Oxford County Museum School
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 8:07 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Return of Donated Items



OXFORD COUNTY MUSEUM SCHOOL


Hi Genevieve,

A few years ago our museum had a similar issue.  A donor requested that his fond be transferred to the local museum as we had moved to a town further away.  Initially, our museum was a better fit, as it was school correspondence and we are a museum school.  Our move to anouther township prompted the donor to ask if the fond could be moved to the closer museum of that township.

The curator of the other museum and I decided to take this as an opportunity to highlight the collection of letters by doing a transfer with a reporter present and make a nice story about it.  The letters in the fond had been received by the donor while he was in the hospital being treated for polio.

It turned out to be a great story and experience.  The story was picked up by other local newspapers and the receiving museum did an exhibit on the letters that was very well attended.  As the sending curator, I attended and was well thought of for initiating the exchange.   It all turned out well, but it required some careful control to prevent hard feelings from some outsiders from taking over.

Good luck!

Jennifer

Jennifer Beauchamp
Curator
Box 232, Ingersoll ON
N5C 3K5

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]<mailto:[mailto:[log in to unmask]]> On Behalf Of Genevieve Carter
Sent: August-26-15 2:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[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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