Best Practices for Managing Federal Museum Collections

Section C. - Manage for the Long-Term

C-8 Know that it is your legal responsibility to care for collections, and therefore your financial responsibility to provide that care

Information on the legal status of museum collections can be found in Marie C. Malaro's A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections, and Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy. 2nd edition. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1998

Other legal information can be found at the websites below.

Smithsonian Institution
Authority and Responsibility (C.)
http://www.si.edu/archives/NCP/bor599.pdf

US Department of Justice - INTERPOL
About the Cultural Property Program
http://www.usdoj.gov/usncb/cultprop/cultureabout.htm
Stolen Works of Art
http://www.interpol.int/Public/WorkOfArt/Default.asp

State Department
US and International Laws
http://exchanges.state.gov/culprop/unesco01.html