[MSN] Audit: 85 pieces of district's art missing

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Audit: 85 pieces of district's art missing

By VALERIE RUSS
russv at phillynews.com 215-854-5987

Eighty-five pieces of artwork valued at $838,000 aren't inside the public schools that are supposed to have them, according to a preliminary audit conducted by the city controller's office.

Among the missing are a painting by Walter Baum, one of the Pennsylvania impressionists, and one by Dox Thrash, a noted Philadelphia artist whose works have been exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

All of the art is part of the Philadelphia School District's art collection.

In a statement yesterday, Controller Alan Butkovitz said his office had conducted a sample audit of 403 - or 41 percent - of 969 works of art that district officials said were still in city schools.

"We discovered that 85 art items could not be found in the location cited by the school district," Butkoviz said.

Also, Butkovitz said the district has not allowed auditors to see another 220 artworks - estimated to be worth up to $30 million - that are in storage.

However, he said the storage facility told auditors that 54 pieces of art that had been held there had been returned to the district.

"Forty of those paintings were among the 85 art items that the district wasn't able to locate for our auditors," Butkovitz said.

Carey Dearnley, spokeswoman for the School Reform Commission, said Butkovitz proved "why some of these pieces were removed from the schools. We can't vouch for the security of the pieces in the schools."

Dearnley said auditors were not allowed into the storage facility because insurance rules limit the number of people who can visit.

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