(a) General rule.--Any nonprofit public, quasi-public, or private association or corporation situated within the county where the historical documents are filed, which maintains a museum, building or facilities used for the exhibit of historical writings, and which shall have adequate facilities for the display and preservation of such documents, may petition the court of common pleas of the judicial district embracing the county wherein such document or documents are filed for the transfer of the custody of such documents for the purpose of their public display. Upon the filing of any petition, the court shall fix a time for a hearing, and prescribe such notice to be given as shall acquaint similar organizations with the filing of the petition. Any other association or corporation meeting the requirements of this subsection may intervene in the proceedings with the same effect as if it had been the original petitioner, and the court, after hearing, may award custody of any historical document or documents to any of the petitioners for such term and upon such conditions as the court shall prescribe.

(b) Permanent copy substituted for original.--Upon the granting of a petition transferring custody of any historical documents, the officer from whose custody it was removed shall substitute in his files a certified permanent copy of such document, which shall be of the same force and effect as the original document.

(c) Petition for return of document.--The appropriate county officer may at any time, without cause, petition the court for the return of any historical document, the custody of which had been previously transferred to any person pursuant to subsection (a).

(d) Order for return on motion of court.--The court, after having taken jurisdiction of the transfer of any historical document, may, without cause, and upon its own motion, order the person having such temporary custody to return such document to the appropriate office wherein it had been originally filed.

(e) Definition.--As used in this section "historical document" means any document formerly belonging to a decedent or any other person, which document is more than 50 years old and which is in the custody of a register of wills, the recorder of deeds, the clerk of any court or the prothonotary, except documents relating to adoption, divorce or custody.