The Editor, Sir:

Re your editorial of Friday, October 31, captioned, 'What Price For Heritage?'

The unfortunate impression may have been conveyed that Michael Lee Chin was in negotiations to purchase the Roger Steffens collection for himself. This is not the case, as his intention was to purchase it to be the nucleus of a Museum of Jamaican Popular Music, a public institution, to be created for the people of Jamaica by the Institute of Jamaica.

The background is as follows:

My personal interest in Jamaican music is well-known and longstanding and I was a member of the Institute of Jamaica committee, set up in 1998, to establish a Museum of Jamaican music.

Roger Steffens personally approached me in December 2002 with an offer to sell his collection "at a special price for the people of Jamaica".

My brother, Michael Lee Chin, through his company, AIC Limited, agreed to purchase the collection for the museum project. It was always intended that the Institute of Jamaica would be the recipient. I visited Mr Steffens in Los Angeles, in October 2003, to examine the collection and realised that it was not in a condition to execute a proper transfer, as there was no master document describing and itemising its contents and establishing rights and ownership.

Purpose

On behalf of Michael Lee Chin, I agreed to help with this process given its size, value, and ultimate purpose. We subsequently spent over US$100,000 to do so. We then agreed that the final price would be based on a professional valuation done by an expert in the field and we accepted Mr Steffens' recommendation of Craig J. Inciardi, director of library and archive development, of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Mr Inciardi went to Los Angeles in August 2004, did his due diligence and determined a value. A price slightly greater than that sum was offered to Mr Steffens. Mr Steffens rejected that offer.

We agreed to do a second valuation and Prof Robert Bowman, another expert in the field, visited Los Angeles in February 2005. A new offer was made based on the average of the two valuations.

Mr Steffens also rejected that offer. Subsequently, our efforts to acquire the collection ended. We have since turned over the relevant documentation, related to this proposed acquisition, to the Institute of Jamaica.

I trust that this will clear up any possible misunderstandings that might have arisen from the editorial, as well as from other recent stories related to this matter that have been published in this newspaper.

I am, etc.,

WAYNE C. CHEN

2 Beverly Vale Close

Kingston 6