[BCMA] Donation dispute

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Dear Jim,

It sounds to me like the sister who donated the medals may not have had the
right or permission from the family to make the donation, even though the
sister-donor apparently signed your donation form saying she had the legal
right to donate the medals.

The CMA's Ethics Guidelines makes reference to this subject on p. 7, E.2
Acquisitions, which you might find helpful:

https://museums.in1touch.org/uploaded/web/docs/ethicsguidelines.pdf

In any event, it appears that the one sister is challenging the right
(legal or otherwise) of the other sister to donate the grandfather's
medals. I would think that until it's proven that the donor-sister did not
have the legal right to make the donation, the medals should stay in the
collection of your museum. It may be a question of "ownership" of the
medals, i.e. did the donor-sister actually have clear ownership of them?

Good luck with this challenging donation.

Best wishes,
Robert
*****

*Robert B. Epp, M.A.*

*Museum Consultant *

*Vancouver, Canada*

*Tel. 604 354 6077*
*http://epprobert.wixsite.com/mysite <http://epprobert.wixsite.com/mysite>*

On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 10:41 AM Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <
bcma at lists.vifa.ca> wrote:

> Seeking advice
>
> We accepted a donation of WW1 metals from a granddaughter of the
> WW1combatant.  The sister of the donor has sent emails demanding we give
> the metals to her even threatening legal action.
> >From the emails, the they to not get along. The sister didn't know the
> metals existed so I don't know how she found out we had just received them.
> Our donation form has the line that the donor has the legal right to
> donate them to us.
>
> Any advice how to deal with the situation?  If we give them back, I
> believe we need to give them to the donor, not the sister.  We don't have a
> legal dept.
>
> Jim Millar
> Port Moody Station Museum
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> BCMA at lists.vifa.ca
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>
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