Donald Campbell’s Bluebird is at the centre of a legal battle worth nearly £150,000.
Paul Kinghan is seeking £147,162 from the museum which houses the world-famous hydroplane – the Ruskin Museum in Coniston.
He said this was the value of the items and cash he had provided to the museum in recent years which had not been repaid.
But museum director Tracey Hodgson said everything Kinghan had provided to the museum had been given as donations.
Kinghan’s claim, issued through a statutory demand, centres upon three engines he bought for the museum as part of its plans to run Bluebird in the Lake District earlier this year.
Two of the engines ended up being sold with Kinghan giving the proceeds of the sales to the Ruskin Museum. The museum still owns the third engine.
Kinghan said the engines, as well other items and services he had supplied, had been delivered with the understanding that those running the museum were the “right people to be the trustees of the boat”.
But he said he now wanted his money back because he felt “deceived and let down”.
“They weren’t the people they told me they were,” he said. “I was misled”.
But Hodgson said: “You cannot just donate something and then ask for it back. That’s the whole point of a donation.”
She said the museum had documentation for everything Kinghan had provided and that the forms did not offer any stipulations for the items and services provided.
Hodgson said Kinghan’s claim had been passed on to the museum’s legal representatives, and that it was up him whether to pursue it further in court.