1. (a) Maintenance. The commission will:

   1. (1) maintain collections recovered by this office for the period of time required for their processing, analysis, and adequate reporting;
   2. (2) maintain collections on loan to this office for the period of time required for their processing, analysis, and adequate reporting; and return or place such collections according to the terms of the loan agreement entered into with the collection owner;
   3. (3) maintain on a temporary basis collections recovered by other organizations or people from archeological investigations in Texas, involving this office, and that this office agrees to accept for curation;
   4. (4) refer to permanent repositories all other requests from individuals, institutions, organizations, and agencies for collections placement;
   5. (5) maintain on a permanent basis only those collections falling within its responsibilities and for which no permanent repository can be found, and sample collections for comparative analysis.

2. (b) Permanent repositories. In seeking permanent repositories for collections held in temporary custody, this office will observe the following procedures.

   1. (1) All collections transferred by this office to a permanent repository will include copies of all artifact catalogues and site data forms, and may include any or all of the following: drawings, maps, photographs, photographic negatives, catalogues, and other such documentation.
   2. (2) Permanent repositories will be identified by this office according to the criteria of existing state and federal guidelines for curation.

   3. (3) Preference will be given to:

      1. (A) qualified permanent repositories that are in the region from which the collections were recovered;
      2. (B) permanent repositories that maintain procedures for access to collections and site records that prevent disclosure of information harmful to the resources involved;
      3. (C) permanent repositories that facilitate scientific archeological research;
      4. (D) permanent repositories that observe state or federal guidelines for curation; and
      5. (E) repositories in the State of Texas.
   4. (4) Transfer of collections to permanent repositories will be made under the terms of a written agreement between the repository and the commission. The agreement will include an inventory of transferred goods, and its terms will be guided by the pertinent state or federal standards for curation. The agreement will provide that, should a repository fail to maintain the integrity of collections provided by the commission, or to protect them adequately, such collections will revert to the commission along with all pertinent records.
   5. (5) Pertinent data concerning collections, related site records, and the sites of resources from which the collections were made may be retained in the commission's inventory of archeological resources, and no transfer agreement will be made that prohibits the commission from retaining data and information.

3. (c) Human skeletal remains.

   1. (1) This office will not publicly exhibit human skeletal remains, and it will discourage the public exhibition of human skeletal remains by others.
   2. (2) Human skeletal remains and associated artifacts will be handled in a manner that complies with applicable state and federal laws and regulations.
4. (d) Artifact identification. This office will not assist in the identification of unprovenienced artifacts.
5. (e) Appraisals. This office will not place a price on any artifacts and/or collections in its custody and it will not appraise artifacts for others.

Source Note:The provisions of this §25.6 adopted to be effective December 31, 1984, 9 TexReg 6315; amended to be effective June 6, 1988, 13 TexReg 2555; amended to be effective July 9, 1996, 21 TexReg 5975.