<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">Dear Jim,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">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.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">The CMA's Ethics Guidelines makes reference to this subject on p. 7, E.2 Acquisitions, which you might find helpful:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><a href="https://museums.in1touch.org/uploaded/web/docs/ethicsguidelines.pdf" style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">https://museums.in1touch.org/uploaded/web/docs/ethicsguidelines.pdf</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">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?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">Good luck with this challenging donation.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">Best wishes,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">Robert </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff">*****</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(56,118,29)">Robert B. Epp, M.A.</span></b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(80,0,80)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(56,118,29)">Museum Consultant </span></b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(80,0,80)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(56,118,29)">Vancouver, Canada</span></b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(80,0,80)"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(0,0,255);font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small"></span><font color="#38761d"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small">Tel. </span>604 </font></span><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(56,118,29)">354 6077</span></b></p>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0000ff"><b style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:rgb(83,129,53)"><a href="http://epprobert.wixsite.com/mysite">http://epprobert.wixsite.com/mysite</a></span></b> </div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 10:41 AM Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv. <<a href="mailto:bcma@lists.vifa.ca">bcma@lists.vifa.ca</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Seeking advice<br>
<br>
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.<br>
>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.<br>
Our donation form has the line that the donor has the legal right to donate them to us. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Jim Millar<br>
Port Moody Station Museum<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
BCMA mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:BCMA@lists.vifa.ca" target="_blank">BCMA@lists.vifa.ca</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.vifa.ca/mailman/listinfo/bcma" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.vifa.ca/mailman/listinfo/bcma</a><br>
</blockquote></div></div>