Friday, January 20, 2017

the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry extensively damaged the Spirit of America when they had it on loan from Craig Breedlove, and they didn't fess up about it, so he's sueing them, and the lawsuit was just given the greenlight by a federal judge.

the Museum of Science and Industry contacted Breedlove and requested him to loan the vehicle to it for an exhibition in 1965 (that's right, over 50 years ago). The two parties made an oral agreement, with conditions of the loan being:

the Spirit of America would not be shown commercially anywhere other than at the Museum without Breedlove’s prior written approval;

the Spirit of America would be made available in the event that a motion picture about the record runs of the vehicle was going to be made; and

in the event that the Spirit of America was to be removed from exhibition, it would returned to Mr. Breedlove at his request.

 When it was returned to him in 2015, he discovered that it had been damaged, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Damage included exterior panels that no longer fit, stretched intake duct mountings for the jet engine and graffiti where schoolchildren carved their initials in the aluminum finish, the lawsuit said.

In addition, Breedlove said the vehicle’s frame had been cut and “unprofessionally” rewelded, and the driver’s seat was missing. The car was taken to a professional restoration shop, which estimated repair costs at $395,000.

Other missing parts included water, oil and fuel tanks and the Spirit’s historic turnaround dolly.

Previously the court wasn't convinced that Breedlove had a claim, and then, he shoved it to them with the documents that listed the standards and best practices from the American Association of Museums (which the Museum of Science and Industry is part of).

That, apparently, was what the judge needed to see to let the museum get taken to court.

Steven Young, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing Breedlove, said Monday the AAM standards "made clearer to the court" that the museum was negligent in its handling of the vehicle. "They didn't live up to museum standards," Young said.

"Stewardship is the careful, sound and responsible management of that which is entrusted to a museum's care. Possession of collections incurs legal, social and ethical obligations to provide proper physical storage, management and care for the collections and associated documentation, as well as proper intellectual control."

http://jalopnik.com/former-land-speed-record-holder-to-sue-museum-for-fucki-1791067864
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-jet-car-breedlove-0110-biz-20170109-story.html

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