Maine Revised Statutes Title 27. Libraries, History, Culture and Art § 86. Acquisition, ownership and disposition of property and size and storage of collection

1. Acquisition. The Maine State Museum is authorized to solicit and accept donations of property for the sole use of the museum as long as the donations are of a nature to carry out and promote the purposes of this chapter. The Maine State Museum may purchase works of art, artifacts and specimens for the enrichment of the collections from funds provided in the budget, secured from private donations or bequests or generated from the disposition of deaccessioned items.

2. Ownership. The museum shall hold its collections and property for the State and shall not sell, mortgage, transfer or dispose of in any manner, except as provided under this section or other authority of law.

3. Disposition. Notwithstanding any contrary provisions of law, the museum may sell or exchange any duplicates or other property determined to be unnecessary which the museum may have or obtain, and may transfer to other institutions of the State property not deemed applicable or necessary for the purposes of the museum. Funds generated by the disposition of artifacts shall be deposited into a revolving fund to be used exclusively for the increase and care of museum collections, including the purchase of other artifacts, specimens or works of art, or the conservation and preservation of state collections. Disposition of property may be through return of property to the original donor, as deemed appropriate by the Maine State Museum Commission.

4. Repealed. Laws 1973, c. 625, § 173, eff. July 5, 1973.

5. Size and storage of collections. The Maine State Museum shall endeavor to continually upgrade the scope and quality of the collections. New acquisitions are to be sought to fulfill this objective. In order to refine existing holdings the museum shall also maintain an on-going program of artifact disposition permitting the improvement of collections within a finite storage space available for them.