What happened to the Texas Memorial Museum gun collection?

[Armybrat]

Texas Memorial Museum was the premier museum in Austin from the time it was built in the '30s up until the Bullock facility was built. Now it is in danger of being closed because of budget cuts.

I remember talking to a security guard there around 10 years ago - I was wondering what happened to the very nice general collection of antique firearms that had been on display for decades. The guard said the guns had been removed for pc reasons (his opinion).
Many of those guns had been on loan from various families around the state and were quite valuable. Dunno if UT took the time to find the original donors or their families to return them. There was no mention of it in the local media as far as I know.
One matched pair of Colt Paterson "Texas" revolvers was extra valuable - today they would fetch upwards of $700,000 to $1,000,000 at a premier auction.


I always used to laugh at the little sign inside the main display case that the guns had been "deactivated" for "safety" reasons - the mainsprings had been removed. Complete dumbassery on the museum staff's part, IMO.

As a guess, the original mainsprings for the Colt Patersons could be worth a couple grand apiece today. No doubt some ignorant staff person tossed them in the trash after cleaning out a dusty old drawer.