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June 2000
Several years ago a woman donated to the local museum some medals that were awarded to her late husband. She has since died. Title was properly transferred and the gift was unconditional but her son is very upset the items are not on display and wants them returned to the family.
The museum offered to transfer the medals to another registered museum in the UK. The family contacted a number of museums across the country. None was willing to accept these items with the condition attached that they be on permanent display.
The family accepts the items were given unconditionally but assert that if the donor knew these medals were not on permanent display she would want them returned to the family. These medals are not unique. There is comparable material not only in this museum but in many others. What is your advice?
The museum does not seem to be under any legal obligation to return the items, nor, according to the position implicit in the Museums Association's Codes of Ethics, should it, unless the family has documentary proof that the donor's wishes have not been respected.
The museum can justifiably assume that, since the donor transferred title without any stipulations, she would have wanted the museum to make use of them as a public cultural and educational resource in whatever way it saw fit. The museum could, therefore, argue that it would conflict with the donor's wishes if the fate of the items were now to be varied by the family.
The museum would, of course, be in a much stronger position if, at the time the donation was made, a clause stating that permanent display could not be guaranteed had been included on the transfer of title form.
The MA has worked with mda and the local government Ombudsman for England on a form of words that it recommends museums adopt in addressing potential donors. This clarifies what the implications of making an unconditional donation are, particularly in respect of the permanent display and retention of items in perpetuity. This can be found in Appendix E of the MA's acquisition guidelines.
If museums adhere to the guidelines the MA has issued, there should, in years to come, be a reduction in the number of complaints from descendants of donors.
In this particular case the museum should weigh the issues carefully. On the one hand the factors for retention include the museum's undoubted title and the presumption against disposal. On the other are the feelings of the family and the museum's relationship with its community, and how that might be portrayed in the local press.
Into that equation must come a pragmatic consideration of the significance and cultural value of the medals to the museum. The fact that there are other similar medals in the collection and that they are undisplayed might suggest that their return to the family might not be so great a loss, especially if the disposal were to be accompanied by an understanding that the museum would be able to borrow them for future exhibition or research.
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