City’s Care of Art Collection Criticized

The city of Los Angeles has at least $2 million worth of artwork that is not insured, including hundreds of pieces that are in storage without proper humidity and temperature controls, officials said Friday.

Some city leaders said Los Angeles should take steps to do a better job of preserving and protecting the artwork, much of which was given to the city during the last century.

“To me this is a very unfortunate situation,” said City Controller Laura Chick. “If we are not going to display them or preserve them, then we are just wasting them.”

The problems were identified in a study completed by the Cultural Affairs Department two years ago after embarrassed city officials admitted that they did not know how many artworks were owned by the city and where they were.

An inventory released this week identified 2,300 objects in the city art collection. About 15% of the collection has been appraised and found to have a fair market value of $2.1 million and a replacement value of $3.1 million. Nearly all of it was found to be uninsured, and city officials warn that as appraisals continue the value of uninsured artwork will go up.

The study found that about 600 of the artworks, mostly paintings, drawings and photographs, are stored in a room in the basement of City Hall without climate control.

“The area is quite humid and warm,” the report says. “Fluctuations in heat and humidity outside of acceptable standards are serious and can cause warping, mold, cracking, flaking and other major damage to artwork, which is already evident due to a past history of improper storage conditions.”

The estimate to install climate control equipment and other protective measures is about $65,000, said Felicia Filer, director of public art for the Cultural Affairs Department.

The department also found that the city holds fine art insurance for some of the collection being displayed in city buildings, but that several expensive works are not covered by private insurance.

The uninsured art includes bronze and stone busts and statues in Lincoln Park that are estimated to have a market value of $1.4 million.

There is also no private insurance coverage for artwork with a fair market value of $565,000 in storage at City Hall and in leased offices on Spring Street, the study found.

An insurance firm has offered a blanket policy, but Filer said the council may wait until all the appraisals are done in June before deciding whether to buy insurance or continue with what she described as a self-insurance mode.

Appraisals so far have found a mixed bag of valuable and not so valuable work in the city’s collection. A Gustave Dore painting was appraised as having a fair market value of $70,000 but a replacement value of twice that. The city’s 34 portraits of mayors are worth a total of $40,500, and 24 Edmund Teske photographs are worth $54,900.

The report will go to the City Council next month for consideration.