I don't know. I don't run the museums, nor do I have the answer to that.
I'll give you another example. In my community there's a guy named--maybe you know him--Dave Thomson, who repatriates medals to their original families when he finds and bids for them on eBay. In fact, he solicits money from individuals around the community. Many of us have participated in supplying him the money he needs to get a medal that's being bid on eBay. He has literally repatriated hundreds of medals off eBay to their original families, usually the descendants of the veteran who owned the medals. He does the historical research to find out who they belonged to. When he cannot find out who they are attributable to, he will donate them to a military museum--