After several years of discussions, Te Papa administrators sent an eight-page draft agreement to the Otago Museum in late June, suggesting any changes in the condition of Oldman artefacts held in Dunedin should be notified in detail to Te Papa, with photographs provided.
The same detailed documentation would also be required if collection items were displayed or loaned to third parties.
If the Otago Museum breached any of its obligations and failed to rectify matters within 10 days, Te Papa could terminate the agreement.
Te Papa could also, by notice in writing, recall "the whole or any part of the Oldman Collection," the draft stated.
Otago Museum chief executive Shimrath Paul said it was "disappointing" that the issue had not been resolved more quickly.
Such a protracted process had wasted resources which were better applied to pressing Otago Museum matters, he said.
Proposed documentation from Te Papa to date had not been in keeping with the agreed principle of custodianship, he said in response to ODT questions.
"The implications of macro-control and micro-monitoring have been of significant concern to the Otago Museum Trust Board."
He had understood that the issue had supposedly been one of documentation on behalf of Te Papa, rather than any intention to change the conditions under which Oldman artefacts had been cared for by the Otago, Auckland and Canterbury museums for several decades.
• The Otago Museum holds 359 Maori and Pacific artefacts from the Oldman collection.
Many artefacts from Oceania which had been owned by William Oldman, a London-based ethnographic collector, were sold to the New Zealand Government in 1948 and distributed among the country's four main museums.
Ownership was transferred to Te Papa by legislation in 1992, without consultation with the regional museums holding the artefacts.
