Hailed when it was first published in 1985 as the bible of U.S. collections management, A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections offers the only comprehensive discussion of the legal questions faced by museums regarding collections. This revised and expanded third edition addresses the many legal developments—including a comprehensive discussion of stolen art and the international movement of cultural property, recent developments in copyright, and the effects of burgeoning electronic uses—that have occurred during the past twenty-five years. An authorative, go-to book for any museum professional, Legal Primer offers detailed explanations of the law, suggestions for preventing legal problems, and numerous case studies of lawsuits involving museum collections.

CONTENTS
Part 1. The museum.

1. What is a museum?
What is required of its Board members?
2. Museums are accountable to whom?

Part 2. The collection.

3. Collection management policies.
4. The acquisition of objects.
Accessioning.
5. The disposal of objects.
Deaccessioning.
6. Loans, Incoming and Outgoing.
7. Unclaimed loans.
8. International loans.
9. Objects left in the temporary custody of the museum.
10. Objects found in the collections.
11. Promised gifts.
12. Tax considerations relevant to gifts.
13. Appraisals and authentications.
14. Care of collections.
15. Insurance.
16. Access to the collections.
17. Visitor and employee safety as it relates to collections.

Appendix:
A. Public Law 95-158, Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Act.
B. 22 U.S.C. section 2549, Immunity from Seizure Statute.
C. Title III of Public Law 97-466, Convention on Cultural Property
Implementation Act.
D. Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export
and transfer of ownership of cultural property, adopted by the General
Conference, UNESCO, at its sixteenth session, Paris, November 14, 1970.
Glossary and explanation of footnote citations.
Selected bibliography.
Index.