A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections

Museums function as cultural warehouses for objects understood to be vitally important. As a result, the laws that control keeping of and access to these objects are also vitally important. This book has been the primary text on the subject in English; this is the newly updated third edition. It is clearly written without legal jargon by two lawyers specializing in the subject, and is technical in style. The book is designed to cover legal issues for all major categories of museum, including historical, cultural, natural history, and art. It is most detailed in its coverage of human objects: cultural property, art, and antiquities. The contents are well organized. Part one, The Museum, covers definitions of museums, board responsibilities, and who is accountable for what. Part two, The Collection, covers collection management policy, accessioning objects (including laws on stolen objects, UNESCO conventions, cultural property, CITIES and other laws restricting use of plants and animals, antiquities and historic property, and copyright and Fair Use), deaccessioning objects (return, sale, donation, disposal), loans, unclaimed loans, international loans, temporary custody, objects found in the collections, promised gifts, tax considerations, appraisal and authentication, duty to care for collections, insurance, access to collections, and visitor and employee safety. Sample agreements and contracts are included within the text in the relevant chapter. Web links to documents online are provided. The book clarifies the importance of nonprofit status, the three duties of board members, the difference between a legal and an ethical standard (and why both are important), and the importance for every museum of having a well-drafted and enforced collection management policy. Required reading for all museum professionals and vital for every scholar or critical theorist who wishes to write about or critique museums. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Marie C. Malaro is an attorney who has devoted most of her career to advising and educating the museum community. She served as a legal advisor to the Smithsonian Institution for many years and then accepted a professorship at the George Washington University where she served a s Director of the university’s Graduate Program in Museum Studies. She now holds the position of Professor Emeritus at that university and continues to teach occasionally. She has lectured extensively in this country and abroad on museum related -topics and has contributed to numerous other museum publications. She is also the author of Museum Governance: Law, Ethics and Policy (Smithsonian Institution Press 1994).

Ildiko Pogany DeAngelis holds BA and MA degrees in art history and a Certificate in Art Museum Administration from the Smithsonian Institution. ?After working in museums in the field of collection management, she earned a law degree magna cum laude from the American University's Washington College of Law in 1980.? For the majority of her legal career, she served as a member of the Smithsonian Institution's in-house legal staff concentrating on collections-related legal issues.? In 1998, she left the Smithsonian to direct the Graduate Museum Studies Program at George Washington University for a decade.? She now holds the title of Associate Professor Emerita and continues to teach a course on law and ethics in a distance education program that she developed with grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This online graduate program is designed to train staff charged with collections care in museums around the country. She has published numerous articles and has also served as faculty and member of the steering committee for the annual American Law Institute/American Bar Association-sponsored seminar, Legal Issues in Museum Administration.