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• The donor may have taken a tax deduction when donating the item to the Museum, <br />putting the Museum in a difficult position if the policy were to require the Museum to <br />offer the deaccessioned item back to the donor or the donor's heirs. <br />• Requiring in the policy that deaccessioned items first be offered back to the donor or <br />the donor's heirs could inadvertently send the message that the donor still has some <br />control or legal interest in the item, which would go against the other provisions of <br />the Collections Management Policy that state that the donor is making a complete <br />transfer of ownership when donating the item. <br />• If the Museum is required to return the deaccessioned item to the donor or the <br />donor's heirs and they then sell the item, that would deprive the Museum of the <br />opportunity to sell the item and be able to spend the proceeds on the development <br />and care of the collections (which is a permissible method of disposal under the <br />policy). <br />• Many museum collection management policies do not allow deaccessioned items to <br />be offered to the donor or the donor's heirs under any circumstances, even as one <br />permissible option for disposing of the item. <br />I am bringing up these considerations now in order to respectfully request that the <br />Commission revisit this provision of the Collections Management Policy and consider <br />revising it to state that "Items may be returned to the donor or donor's heirs ...." as one of <br />several permissible options for methods of disposal, as opposed to stating that "Items <br />should first be offered to the donor or donor's heirs ...." <br />This would give the Museum staff the most flexibility in deciding on appropriate methods of <br />disposal for different items that may be deaccessioned in the future. Also, stating it as one <br />permissible option would still allow the Museum to offer a deaccessioned item to the donor <br />or the donor's heirs if that is determined to be the most appropriate method of disposal for a <br />particular item being deaccessioned. <br />2 <br />