City Art Collection Inventory Ordered

The city of Los Angeles ordered an inventory Tuesday of its vast and scattered art collection, an accounting that would assist a study looking into dividing city assets as part of the San Fernando Valley and Harbor secession proposals.

The City Council directed the Cultural Affairs Department to report on the contents and condition of the art collection in 60 days and to develop a plan for conducting a more detailed appraisal of the more than 2,000 works of art.

Councilwoman Laura Chick proposed the inventory after learning, upon asking the department for art for her office, that many of the gifts received by the city over the years are unaccounted for or in storage.

“I found out that, stuck away in a dark warehouse, piled up in a corner, are some pretty amazing pieces of art that are available to any of us who have places to display them where the public can see,” Chick told her colleagues. “To me, a public benefit, an art collection, should be displayed, should be seen by the public, and that is not happening today.”

The inventory would also help those studying Valley and Harbor secession to determine what assets might need to be divided, said Councilman Hal Bernson, who serves on the Local Agency Formation Commission, which studies secession proposals.

“If [secession] happens, it will be like a divorce,” he said. “There is an obligation on the part of the city to evaluate all of its assets.”

From a $10,000 kimono given to Los Angeles by a sister city in Japan to a $400,000 Italian sculpture in the fountain of the Department of Water and Power headquarters, the city over the years has received many gifts of art.

Roella Hsieh Louie, the arts manager who oversees the collection, said a rough count has found 2,000 to 3,000 such gifts in various locations.

Many of the items, including portraits of all the mayors and a hooked rug portraying the city flag, may have more sentimental than monetary worth. But some are valuable artworks, including plein-air paintings by Edgar Payne and Kathryn Leighton.

The total collection could be worth millions, but an exact value could not be determined without an appraisal, Louie said.

It will cost at least $200,000 to determine the value of the art, much of it hanging in city buildings, she said. “Because of secession, this is something we have to do,” Louie said, adding that less than 10% of the city’s artwork is in storage.