GOLDEN — The city has filed suit to stop the current managers of the Golden Pioneer Museum from boxing up and possibly removing artifacts, the “vast majority” of which the city says it owns.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Jefferson County District Court, is part of an ongoing dispute over the City Council’s decision to change management of three city-owned museums.
“We can’t find any other way to protect the artifacts,” said City Manager Mike Bestor. “We have not been able to have a rational discussion.”
Contracts to manage the museum signed in 2000 and again in 2005 are “crystal clear,” Bestor said, that the city owns 90 percent of the items and that donated artifacts become the city’s property.
“It’s a sad day for Golden, and it’s a sad part of the history for the Golden Pioneer Museum,” said museum manager Barbara Mills.
“We have done nothing to violate our contract,” Mills said. “We wanted to work with them. (The city) is just trying to muscle us.”
The Golden Pioneer Museum, a nonprofit, has been a repository of Golden’s history for 70 years.
Since 1953, the Mount Lookout chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has managed the museum. But in 2007, the museum dissolved affiliation with the DAR. In September, the City Council decided to have the Friends of the Astor House and Clear Creek History Park manage those two museums and the Pioneer Museum as of Jan. 1.
The City Council decided to put the management contracts for the three museums out to bid to see whether the city could get a better deal, Bestor said.
The Pioneer Museum made an unsuccessful bid. Since then, Bestor said Mills “has made comments about clearing the place out” and has contacted people to encourage them to remove loaned items.
“When her contract expires Dec. 31, she needs to move out and give us the keys,” Bestor said. “We’ve changed managers, and the museum is going to stay there and keep operating.”
Mills said she heard the city was “coming in” so she slept at the museum over the weekend “to protect the artifacts.”
Mills said she is not removing items from the museum but has contacted the DAR, which has boxed up its books.
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com
