New York Consolidated Laws

N.Y. Education Law § 233 (2026)

State Museum; collections made by the staff

✓ current as of May 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section NY-LEGnysenate.gov Justiaon Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

§ 233. State Museum; collections made by the staff. 1. All scientific
specimens and collections, works of art, objects of historic interest
and similar property appropriate to a general museum, if owned by the
state and not placed in other custody by a specific law, shall
constitute the collections of the state museum. The state museum shall
be the custodian of the collections, shall perform standard curatorial,
research and educational activities and a director appointed by the
regents shall constitute its head.
  2. Any scientific collection made by a member of the museum staff
during his term of office shall, unless otherwise authorized by
resolution of the regents, belong to the state and form part of the
state museum.
  3. The state of New York, through its legislative authority accepts
the provisions of section one hundred twenty of the federal-aid highway
act of nineteen hundred fifty-six (70 Stat. 374) relating to the salvage
of archaeological or paleontological objects, including but not limited
to ruins, historic sites, Indian burial grounds, cemeteries, buildings,
artifacts, fossils or, other objects of antiquity having national
significance from an historical, cultural, social or scientific
standpoint, and empowers and directs the commissioner of education to
promulgate joint regulations with the department of environmental
conservation, the office of general services, and the office of parks,
recreation and historic preservation and make agreements with those and
other appropriate state departments or agencies and such agency or
agencies as needed to carry out the purposes of such provision of law.
  4. Except as otherwise provided in subdivision three of this section,
no person shall investigate, excavate, remove, injure, appropriate or
destroy any object of archaeological, historical, cultural, social,
scientific or paleontological interest, situated on, in or under lands
owned by the state of New York, without the written permission of the
commissioner of education. A violation of this provision shall
constitute a class A misdemeanor. The attorney general, either
independently or upon referral from a state agency, shall seek civil
and/or criminal prosecution, civil and/or criminal penalties and any
other relief, including but not limited to seizure and forfeiture of the
appropriate items, and forfeiture of the instrumentalities of the
unauthorized actions on state lands. The discovery of any such objects
shall be forthwith reported to the commissioner by the state department
or agency having jurisdiction over such lands.
  5. Permits for the examination, excavation or gathering of
archaeological, historical, cultural, social, scientific or
paleontological objects upon the lands under their respective
jurisdictions may be granted by the heads of those state departments or
agencies to persons authorized by the commissioner of education for the
purposes of the state museum and state science service, for the purpose
of the preservation of any such objects worthy of permanent preservation
and, in all cases, to the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge
relating thereto.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 4 cases, 1985–2013 · leading case: Ne. Rsch., LLC v. One Shipwrecked Vessel, 790 F. Supp. 2d 56 (W.D.N.Y. 2011).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Ne. Rsch., LLC v. One Shipwrecked Vessel, 790 F. Supp. 2d 56 (W.D.N.Y. 2011). · cites it 5× “On May 16, 2008, Vrana, on behalf of Plaintiff, applied to the New York State Education Department, New York Museum (“State Museum”), for a permit authorizing the collection and excavation of the Dunkirk Schooner, pursuant to N.Y. Educ. Law § 233 [4] (“§ 233[4]”), which requires…”

Ne. Rsch., LLC v. One Shipwrecked Vessel, 729 F.3d 197 (2d Cir. 2013). “" N.Y. Educ. Law § 233 (4). 6 . The permit also required that Northeast prepare and submit a report on the project to the State Museum by November 30, 2008, and that, "[i]f the shipwreck site is ultimately determined by the court to be under the jurisdiction of the State of New…”

State v. Vernooy, 109 A.D.2d 682 (N.Y. App. Div. 1985). “The third and fourth causes, respectively, claim possession by reason of the fact that the cannons were located within New York’s navigable waters and as objects of archaeological interest found on or under State land, pursuant to Education Law § 233 (4), (5). To the extent the…”

Vernooy v. State, 1987 A.M.C. 2483 (1987). “To the extent that the State of New York opposes the claim herein by asserting that the cannon should be classified as archaeological finds under Education Law § 233 and not salvage under Navigation Law § 130 et seq.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.