358 Artworks Worth $400,000 Missing From L.A.’s Collection

Halfway through an inventory of its scattered collection, the city of Los Angeles can’t find 358 works of art that may be worth nearly $400,000 and has asked police to investigate, officials said Monday.

The missing artworks range from a dramatic 1946 Arthur Beaumont oil painting of the naval cruiser Los Angeles that may be worth up to $150,000, to a 1936 painting by Guy Morton titled “Santa Monica Canyon” and worth about $1,000.

“We want to find this stuff because it does belong to the city of Los Angeles,” said Los Angeles Police Department Det. Don Hrycyk, head of the art theft detail.

Los Angeles has about 2,000 works of art worth up to $5 million. Many are gifts to the city and have been loaned by the Cultural Affairs Department to city agencies for display in city offices. The works include a $600,000 Italian sculpture at the Department of Water and Power headquarters downtown and the $1-million Korean Friendship Bell at Point Fermin.

The inventory began after The Times reported last year that the city, in providing a list of assets for pending studies of proposed political secession, did not know how much art it had, where it was kept or how much it was worth.

An initial review ordered by the City Council concluded that 362 works of art are missing. The Cultural Affairs Department launched an inventory of all city offices where art has been loaned, according to a city report released Monday.

With half of the inventory completed to date, only four missing artworks have been found, officials said. Cultural affairs officials recently filed a police report on 150 of the objects.

“There are efforts between the Cultural Affairs Department and the LAPD to locate the missing art,” said Tina Kiani, a city analyst. She said some of the artwork might have been taken home by retiring city employees or lost during moves of city offices.

Other pieces may be stashed away and forgotten in storage rooms in city buildings, Hrycyk said.

“The city really needs to do a thorough search so we can chip away at this list,” he said. Tracking down the missing art is a difficult task for police detectives, who are hampered in some cases by the lack of records and photographs.

The report Monday estimated the value of the missing art at nearly $400,000.

Records Are Incomplete

Roella Hsieh Louie, the city’s arts manager, said a precise value cannot be placed on the work because it was not subjected to an independent appraisal before it disappeared.

“We have no market value for any of these pieces,” said Joe Smoke, who works with Louie in managing the city art collection.

He said estimates offered so far are often based on how contributors valued the work. The value set on the Beaumont painting was based on an estimate from the painter’s family, Louie said.

Hrycyk’s office has received detailed information on 150 of the missing pieces, including the Beaumont painting and a 1971 abstract sculpture by Tyler Ackerodi titled “Tight Money” valued at $500. The LAPD has posted pictures of missing artworks and other information on the department’s Internet site.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, head of the council’s Government Efficiency Committee, voiced concern about the missing art Monday, calling on the cultural affairs officials to improve security for its public art.

“We have so many pieces already missing, I don’t want anything to happen to the pieces we do have possession of,” Chick said. She recommended that $93,000 be allocated to begin cataloging and appraising the 600 most valuable works in the city collection.

Louie said that since she took over the art collection in 1995, she has used a detailed process for properly recording all art that is contributed and where it is placed. She said earlier records are incomplete.

In some cases, the department that originally borrowed the art has moved, and artwork is no longer where it was originally placed.

Louie said that as the numbers of artworks and city buildings have increased, her office has been able to devote only 20% of one employee’s time to coordinating the collection.

“We don’t have the human resources,” she said.