Missouri Revised Statutes Title XI. Education and Libraries § 184.116. Action for damages for loss or injury, time limitation--failure to bring action after notice, property deemed donated, when--purchaser from the museum to acquire good title

1. No action for damages shall be brought against a museum because of injury to or loss of property on loan to the museum more than two years from the date the museum gives the lender or claimant notice of the injury or loss or five years from the date of the injury or loss, whichever occurs earlier.

2. No action to recover property on loan shall be brought against a museum more than one year from the date the museum gives the lender or claimant notice of intent to terminate the loan or notice of acquisition of title to undocumented property, or more than five years from the date a notice of intent to preserve an interest in the property was filed with the museum by the lender or claimant, whichever occurs earlier.

3. A lender or claimant is considered to have donated loaned property to the museum if the lender or claimant fails to file an action to recover the property on loan to the museum within the periods specified in subsections 1 and 2 of this section.

4. A person who purchases property from a museum acquires good and valid title to the property if the museum represents to the person that it has acquired title to the property pursuant to sections 184.101 to 184.122.

5. Notwithstanding subsections 3 and 4 of this section, a lender or claimant who was not given notice of intent to terminate a loan or notice of acquisition of title as provided in sections 184.111 and 184.112, respectively, and who proves that the museum received from the lender or claimant an adequate notice of intent to preserve an interest in loaned property, which satisfies all of the requirements of section 184.114, within the seven years immediately preceding the filing of an action to recover the property, may bring an action to recover the property or, if the property has been disposed of, the reasonable value of the property at the time it was disposed of plus interest at the legal rate.

6. A museum is not liable at any time, in the absence of a court order, for returning property to the original lender, even if a claimant other than the lender has filed a notice of intent to preserve an interest in property. If persons claim competing interests in property in the custody of a museum, the burden is upon the claimants to prove their interest in an action in equity initiated by a claimant. A museum is not liable at any time for returning property to an uncontested claimant who produced reasonable proof of ownership pursuant to section 184.114.

7. This section shall become effective July 1, 1992.