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[Terry]

I have just seen on Facebook that the model boats at Beale Park are being sold off. I am a bit annoyed by this. I donated my late fathers boats many years ago in good faith that they would remain as museum exhibits. I cannot attend the sale as I live abroad. Is a list of the models for sale available? What is happening to the money that is earned from the sale?


Thans Terry.

[Colin Bishop]

I thought they had all been sold off a while ago.

Following the death of Richard Howard in 2017 the Beale Park Trustees decided that they no longer wished to maintain the museum or indeed to host any model boating activities.

Some information here:

https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=67250.0

https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=64474.0

I think there were several unhappy people in your situation where boats had either been loaned or donated under certain conditions.

Colin

[TheLongBuild]

Yes, watched an episode of Salvage Hunters where Drew Pritchard picked up a few going cheap from around 2021

[SJG001]

Colin,


I think most of the assets were sold off 1-2 years ago possibly more - but an ongoing question remains about ownership of some of the models (donated / loaned / etc) and something popped up a few days back in a news-feed but did not catch what was said.


I think the best advice is to have paperwork setting out the condition of the donation or loan and who (or whose estate) the item should be returned to.


From what I understand Museums consider any item donated their property to do so as they wish (donate, sell, pass on to other museums..) unless there is a stipulation in the agreement. Even when selling a museum may choose to do so privately (direct to a dealer generally) to avoid auction fees. Recovery of the asset becomes difficult at this point.

[Colin Bishop]

There were issues when the Science Museum closed its Maritime Gallery. Some of the models were on loan for display purposes only and should have reverted to the original owners when the gallery closed. Lots of complex issues as a result.

I rather get the impression, right or wrong, that the Beale Trustees just auctioned everything off willy nilly irrespective of provenance.

Colin

[garethjones35]

I know some of the people who have been involved with the sale of boats from the Beale Park collection.  I believe they did make strenuous attempts to trace the original owners of any boats that had been loaned and to reunite them with their true owners.  Unfortunately the records kept by Beale Park were sadly lacking in this respect and it was not possible to trace the ownership of many of the boats in the collection.  I think the organisers believed that there had been sufficient publicity about the sales in the model boat media so that anyone concerned would be aware of what was happening and would be able to get in touch to register their ownership claim.  However I guess there will always be some people unaware and there were an awful lot of boats.


My wife and I did visit Beale Park for one of the early sales and were amazed at the quantity and diversity of model on offer.  However it had perhaps the opposite effect on us to what might have been expected and we did not buy anything.  It made us realise we had too many models in our own collection that were rarely if ever sailed and it spurred us on to dispose of some of them before we became too old and decrepit to do it, or pass the problem on to our children.


Gareth

[KitS]

The RAF Museum at Hendon did similar things with its large collection of 1/48 scale models, most of which were built by a team of volunteers (and at the volunteer's costs too...) one of whom was me. When they decided to close the model display many of the models were 'disposed of' (read 'destroyed') with not a thought given to returning them to the original builders!


Museums do tend to think they are 'judge and jury' in such cases and act without any forethought. From experience that seems to be because they change their staff so frequently that the current incumbents just don't know what went on before their time.

[SteamboatPhil]

Like Terry I had loaned on of my late fathers boats to the museum along with all the drawings and the gold medal won at the model engineer exhibition in 1982.
I was lucky as Colin gave me a heads up and I approached the museum with proof of ownership and it was returned to me, sadly without the drawings or the medal.


I was amazed at how many models there was there, and (in my opinion) they were selling them for way over their real worth.
I was lucky but I know many people lost their models.
If I ever loaned a model again (unlikely) I would make sure to have a form of contract that states it is a loan model

[Martin (Admin)]

[SteamboatPhil]

And that wasn't even half of them 

[cos918]

I have been to several of the sales and got some very nice models.
All the boats were moved in to the barns. There were over 1000 models that beale no longer wanted. Yes the bulk of them are now sold.
To thoes people who are talking about loaned models. Here is the answer. There was virtualy no paper work, Richard Howard left no paper work. His death was well publicised back then ,here and  in other model outlets. People should have got in contact with beale park back then. Think about it. A Model loaned way back in say 1990. People moved phone number change etc. Sorry but people had to contact belae park not beale park to contact them. Yes some people did get in contact and have had models returend .  The bulk of them no paper work what so ever. Thoes who knew Richard he dealt in Cash. Very common for him to walk up to boat owners at Beale boat show and offer cash there and then to buy that model.
John