I agree there is a balance between due diligence and trying to assist a legitimate return. Here are some additional questions I would ask:

1. How accurately can the claimant describe the object?
2. Can the Museum independently verify the year of death.
3. 34 years seems a long time to wait after death to ask for the loan back! Can the claimant be diplomatically asked to comment on this: this may actually assist their case e.g. if they have only recently come across paperwork that supports proof of title.
4. Does the Museum have any documentation on the provenance of the object? If so, worth asking the claimant what he/she has and then “comparing notes”.

I live in the U.K. and am not familiar with U.S. federal or state law on all this, so my thoughts above are on a “common sense” basis!

Good luck,

Jerry

Sent from my iPhone

On 17 May 2018, at 08:58, C. Müller-Straten <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I think if someone claims a return of loans, it up to the claimant to do the job to prove the legality of claims. It is up to a lawyer then to check the papers.


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