P3D Re: P3D Re: Museum Donations

[roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John W Roberts)]

>Date: Sat, 15 Nov 1997 08:38:55 -0700
>From: "Paul A. Lehman" <palehman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: P3D Re: Museum Donations

>A question to the lawyers of the group, when one wills a collection to a
>museum, can one make the donation conditional such that it must be
>exhibited, or, always available for public viewing and research, or,
>never to be sold?

Like all the answers you're likely to get, I'll start this one with
"I'm not a lawyer, but..."

Donations can be made conditional, but they have to be agreed upon and
signed by both parties before taking effect. If you make the conditions
too stringent, don't be surprised if you can't find anyone to accept the
donation. I'm not sure of the constraints that affect museum curators, but
I would probably hesitate to *promise* to exhibit something unless it were
the Spirit of St. Louis or the Mona Lisa. If you offer to pay for the wing
of the museum (including land costs) in which your exhibit is to be shown,
you might get more interest.

Also, the government isn't going to come around every week to make sure the
conditions of the agreement are being adhered to. Even if you're dead, you
probably need to leave someone behind to look out after your interests,
and probably also some money for legal maneuvers, publicity, etc. if needed.

I've noticed that some exhibits in some museums are described as being on loan
from somebody. Perhaps you could find a museum to accept items as a loan and
exhibit them for a certain period of time.

Don't some of the photographic societies have repositories for images? Not as
good as being on exhibit, but at least they'd be preserved, and they might
resurface sometime.

John R


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