[cctalk] Re: One of Paul Allen's Museums

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Apr 25, 2023, at 9:43 AM, geneb via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 25 Apr 2023, Tom Hunter via cctalk wrote:
> 
>> Hopefully the LCM will be sold as a going concern rather than just a
>> firesale of the assets.
> AFAIK, it's a 503(c), and I suspect if they started to "fire sale" assets, 
> lawsuits from folks that made significant donations would be inbound.

Maybe, but what grounds would there be for a suit?  If you donate to the 
museum, the thing becomes their property, to dispose of as they see fit.  That 
is, unless you have a contract that says otherwise -- and even so, you'd have 
to hope that a court would enforce a contract.  There is ample precedent of 
courts disregarding the plain English text of contracts or trusts to permit 
museums to do things prohibited by the terms of agreements with donors.  A 
recent one (name forgotten) in Pennsylvania comes to mind.

        paul