City manager: Carnegie Art Museum collection must be inventoried for NAGPRA compliance; reopening plans on hold

Oxnard City Manager Alex Nguyen told the Inter-Neighborhood Council that the Carnegie Art Museum building has been closed since February 2019 and that the city must first resolve a legal and ethical inventory issue before deciding how the building can reopen.

Nguyen said the museum’s holdings include Native American artifacts and possibly human remains and that federal and California repatriation laws now require a qualified Native American expert to handle and assess the collection before city staff may touch the items. He said the city estimates at least 600 objects in the collection but that the number and provenance are not yet verified.

The issue matters because the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and California’s companion laws require public institutions to inventory certain categories of cultural items, post them for claim, and consult with associated tribes before retaining or transferring them. Nguyen said the museum’s current status is out of compliance and that addressing the collection’s legal obligations…