[BCMA] Seeking legal advice about returning donated artifacts.

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

My initial reaction is that they are legally yours and there is no reason to
give it to anyone else.

 

A few questions

 

1.        Who owns the collection? Is it the Barkerville Trust? The
Province? Or a separate entity?

2.       Was there a tax receipt given for the collection?

3.       Does the material fit into your collections mandate? Would you
normally consider deaccessioning the material?

4.       Is the person requesting the material saying the person that
donated it was not the legal owner of the material?

 

If it is the Barkerville Trust that owns the collection, being a federally
registered Charity and if a tax receipt was given, then there is potential
for real legal problems by returning the collection. Even if there was no
tax receipt given and the Trust is the owner, there could be legal problems
with Revenue Canada, as giving away stuff to a private individual could run
you afoul of charity tax laws.

 

Not sure whom I would recommend in terms of lawyers, not a lot of recent
case law there is around this ( Beaverbrook Art Gallery??)

Cheers

Lee Boyko

Sooke Region Museum

 

 

 

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca] On
Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: December 1, 2014 11:09 AM
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca
Subject: [BCMA] Seeking legal advice about returning donated artifacts.

 

Hi all,

 

We've recently had a request from someone to return items that are in our
collection to the family.  A few years ago we obtained a number of old
letters (mostly business correspondence) and books as a donation from a the
owners of a second hand store.   The member of the family who was originally
in possession of the items had donated them to the second hand store when
cleaning out their basement.  We were going to purchase them, but the owners
of the store offered them to our museum as a donation instead, and we
accepted.  We have since made high resolution digital copies of all of the
documents.

 

A different member of the family has recently written to us asking that the
items be returned.  This person has visited our archives a number of times
to review the letters, and until recently had always been supportive of us
having and preserving them.  The person asking for the return of the letters
is not the person from whom we received them, nor the person who donated
them to the second hand store, but they are married to a grandchild of the
person to whom the letters were originally written.  

 

We are in a bit of a quandary as to how to proceed.  We would prefer to keep
the letters, or at least  the copies, as they are valuable historical
resources, and we have expended a lot of staff time and resources in
digitizing and cataloguing them.  However, maintaining a good relationship
with the family is important too, and we don't want to cause more animosity
by returning them to someone to whom they did not originally belong.

 

Can anyone recommend legal resources or lawyers that specialize in dealing
with this type of issue?  Any advice would be welcome.

 

Mandy Kilsby

Curator, Barkerville Historic Town

250-994-3302 ext. 35 

mandy.kilsby at barkerville.ca

14301 Highway 26 E. 

Box 19, Barkerville BC, V0K 1B0

www.barkerville.ca

 



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