What do “control” and “possession” mean?
NAGPRA says that museums and Federal agencies must prepare inventories and summaries of cultural items in their control or possession. “Control” means having a sufficient legal interest in human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony to lawfully permit the museum or Federal agency to treat the objects as part of its collection for purposes of NAGPRA, whether or not the museum or Federal agency has physical custody of the human remains or objects.
