Belfast City council and a loyalist museum on the Shankill Road are in dispute over a table used by Sir Edward Carson to sign the Ulster Covenant opposing Home Rule.
The table is currently on display at Fernhill House Museum on the Shankill Road and the museum wants to keep it on a 99 year loan. A council spokeswoman said, however, that the table has been on loan to the museum for three months and the loan has now expired.
Mr Tommy Kirkham, manager of the Fernhill House Museum and a member of the Ulster Democratic Party, said the council should hand over the table to its safekeeping, on a 99 year loan.
The museum claims City Hall neglected the table and workers used it to saw wood and to stand on.
The council spokeswoman said no request for a loan had been received.