Best Practices for Managing Federal Museum Collections

Section C. - Manage for the Long-Term

C-1 Know the legal status of each object in your Federal museum collections

Management of Federal museum collections requires taking actions to protect, conserve, use, and provide access to Federal property. This requires knowing which property, which associated information, and which intellectual property rights you control.

Failure to understand the legal status of items in your federal collections could result in the acquisition of stolen property, damage to museum collections or violation of rights held by someone other than your agency.

American Association of Museums
Guidelines Concerning the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects During the Nazi Era
http://www.aam-us.org/museumresources/ethics/nazi_guidelines.cfm

UNESCO
Prevention of the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
http://www.unesco.org/culture/legalprotection/theft/html_eng/index_en.shtml

Colorado Digitization Program
Legal Issues to Consider When Digitizing Collections
http://www.cdpheritage.org/digital/legalIssues.cfm

Interagency Federal Collections Alliance Conference #3 (2000)
http://www.doi.gov/museum/fedcoll3/doipapers.html

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Program (National Park Service)
Working with Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organization
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/MUSEUMS/INDEX.HTM#Tribes
Contaminated Collections
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/SPECIAL/INDEX.HTM

Copyright
http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
Copyright and intellectual property
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/intprop

Articles
"The Government Wants Its WPA Art Back"
http://www.artbusiness.com/wpa.html

Museum Security - Various Articles
http://www.museum-security.org/00/182.html