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Hello BC readers, it’s been a while. I’ve been off working on comics (The Freeze Vol 1 trade from Image Comics/Top Cow is in stores now…) but after
Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, Greg Theakston, jack kirby, Kirby Museum
The Kirby Museum Responds To Stolen Goods Claim
The Kirby Museum has responded to a report involving stolen merchandise that we ran a few days back. In the initial article Greg Theakston put out a press release stating his plans to file a stolen goods report with the Hoboken Police Department involving 3,000+ Xerox copies of Jack Kirby's original pencils that he loaned to the Kirby Museum. Now the museum board responds to Theakston's claims.
Archive Donor Matter
11 August 2014
Jack Kirby Museum Responds to Accusations of Property Theft
We have been pleased with our relationship with Greg Theakston over the years, especially considering the generous donations he made to our physical archives in 2008-2009. If you look at our website, visit our YouTube channel, or read Museum-related articles and newsletters in the Jack Kirby Collector magazine, you will find Greg's contributions to our efforts cited throughout.
Upon receipt of the first portion of his donation, we provided Greg with a gift acknowledgment letter. He declined our offer of same for subsequent portions. In written correspondence after the transaction occurred, Greg described the intent of his gift, where he used the word 'donation' a number of times and specifically named his set of photocopies as being among the items that he donated; there is no mention of any part of the donation being a loan, or that any of it is to be returned to him upon request.
So we were dismayed when the Museum was contacted by Mr. Theakston asking for the return of his property, now reclassified by him as a loan. Despite being reminded of the facts described above, he posted a press release on Facebook accusing the Museum of holding his property and describing his intention to file a stolen goods police report that day. He posted two days later on Facebook that he had yet to file the report.
After examining the evidence of the interaction between the two parties, we are confident the Museum has done no wrong. For Mr. Theakston to accept an acknowledgement letter for his gift, to repeatedly express the intent of his donation after the gift was made, to allow us to refer to his donations as such in publications without correction, and then, after five years, to inform us that it was a loan and that he wants his property returned, we feel is not fair play. We can assure the public, Jack Kirby fans and our supporters that Trustee Randolph Hoppe acted honestly and in accord with our by-laws. Hopefully this will put this matter to rest.
Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center
Board of Trustees:
John Morrow
Thomas Kraft
David Schwartz
Randolph Hoppe
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