Local News in Brief : 2 Museums Resolve Flap Over Hart Relics

Aflap over the removal of artifacts from the William S. Hart Museum was amicably resolved Tuesday when the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History agreed to let volunteers at the Hart museum help decide how the items will be repaired and displayed.

“It worked out very well,” said Mark Rodriguez, chief deputy director of the natural history museum, after meeting with the directors of the Friends of Hart Park and Museum.

Maureen Focht, board president of the Friends, said her group will form a small committee to work closely with the Museum of Natural History in managing the Hart artifacts, many of which are decaying because they were left for years without a curator.

Once the committee is formed, Rodriguez said, the valuable paintings, blankets and clothing in the Hart collection will be evaluated and scheduled for repair in conjunction with fund-raising efforts by the Friends group.

William S. Hart, a cowboy actor who made 70 silent movies, left his villa and 220-acre estate in the Santa Clarita Valley to Los Angeles County when he died in 1946. After a bureaucratic battle between agencies, the county gave authority for the Hart Park and Museum to the Parks and Recreation Department in 1962, and the Museum of Natural History withdrew its curator.

A new curator was appointed in September, when the Museum of Natural History regained authority over the Hart artifacts. Some Newhall residents have since objected to the removal of many documents from the Hart Museum, reviving decades-old resentment in the community over the removal of the Hart jewelry for safekeeping in the 1950s.

Focht said the county museum plans to return most of the artifacts to the Hart museum after they have been inventoried and repaired. “Hopefully, in the future, we can have a research facility here in Hart Park,” she said. “Meanwhile, it will be a visitor’s center.”

Focht blamed the dispute on a lack of communication. She also said there is anti-county sentiment in the Santa Clarita Valley, where residents voted in November to incorporate as the city of Santa Clarita and end county rule.