California Code
CHAPTER 1.5 - Loans to Museums for Indefinite or Long Terms
Section 1899.10.

1899.10. (a) The three-year limitation on actions to recover personal property prescribed in Code of Civil Procedure Section 338.3 shall run from the date the museum gives the lender notice of its intent to terminate the loan pursuant to Section 1899.9.

(b) Except as provided in subdivision (e), effective January 1, 1985, no action shall be brought against a museum to recover property on loan when more than 25 years have passed from the date of the last written contact between the lender and the museum, as evidenced in the museum’s records.

(c) A lender shall be deemed to have donated loaned property to a museum if the lender fails to file an action to recover the property on loan to the museum within the periods specified in subdivisions (a) and (b).

(d) One who purchases property from a museum acquires good title to the property if the museum represents that it has acquired title to the property pursuant to subdivision (c).

(e) Notwithstanding subdivisions (b) and (c), a lender who was not given notice that the museum intended to terminate a loan and who proves that the museum received a notice of intent to preserve an interest in loaned property within the 25 years immediately preceding the date on which the lender’s right to recover the property otherwise expired under subdivision (b) may recover the property or, if the property has been disposed of, the reasonable value of the property at the time the property was disposed of with interest at the rate on judgments set by the Legislature pursuant to Section 1 of Article XV of the California Constitution.

(Amended by Stats. 1984, Ch. 541, Sec. 1. Effective July 17, 1984.)