THE VANISHING ART CASE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92-00041R000100170019-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: June 23, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/12/14: CIA-RDP92-00041R000100170019-9
The Vanishing Art Case
257 Works Owned by Public Are Missing
By Ward Sinclair
Washington Poet Staff Writer
Semantics is the Big Washing-
ton Game, but no one is quibbling
over this: 257 works of art owned
by John Q. Public are among the
missing.
Missing, in the view of the Na-
tional Collection of Fine Arts, is
not the right word. Nor is "un-
located." Nor is "purloined," or
any word like that.
Semantics aside, it is believed
the art works are somewhere in
the White House, in the Old Exec-
utive Office Building next door,
across the street at Blair House
or out in the Maryland country-
side at Camp David.
But no one knows for certain,
and that is the problem.
The problem was brought to
light by The National Journal,
a governmental affairs weekly,
which raised the possibility that
at least some of the NCFA's art
works may have found their way
into private collections of former
White House employes.
And some in the present admini-
stration have even gone so far as
to imply the same thing?that the
paintings went the way of their
admirers?out.
The absence of the 257 works of
art, mostly paintings, was discover-
ed when officials of the NCFA
began a review of loans made to
presidential staffers since 1929.
According to the NCFA, 1,930
pieces of art have gone on loan
to the White House and environs.
All but the 257 are accounted for.
A missing Currier & Ives print.
NCFA rejects the idea that they
ire lost, unfindable or any other
euphemistic synonym. But it is
not certain.
"The word 'unlocated' implies
that I or someone went over and
conducted a thorough search. We
have not done that, and until we
have, I think 'outstanding' is a
better word," said Robert John-
ston, the NCFA registrar.
"Until we have had a chance to
go and look, we can't say they are
missing. It will take a long time
and a lot of prying into closets,"
he said.
Does NCFA intend to make a
formal request to gain access to
those security-tight hallways of the
executive complex?
"I don't see how we can avoid
making a formal request," John-
ston said.
Joshua Taylor, director of the
NCFA, described the situation in
another way. He said the list of
See ART, A6, Col. I
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/12/14: CIA-RDP92-00041R000100170019-9
A6 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/12/14: CIA-RDP92-00041R000100170019-9
"The Trout Pool," one of three missing Currier & Ives prints loaned to the White House for display at Camp David.
Don't Look Now, but 257 Pieces
Of U.S. Art Seem to Have Vanished
ART, From Al
257 was an "innocent" inventory of
works "that we are checking physi-
cally to determine present location
and to re-lend or recall to the muse-
About the possibility of outright
theft, he said: "We are resigned to the
fact that some few ... may have be-
come so important to their borrowers
that they went with them into retire-
ment."
The inventory of the 257 indicates
that many of the works were intended
for other than White House staff
,viewing. Among the borrowers were
the CIA, the old Office of Economic
Opportunity, the Council of Economic
Advisers and someone called "White
'House helicopters."
and Nixon, and former vice president
Spiro T. Agnew and Nelson A. Rocke-
feller.
Johnston said that in those cases
tile NCFA records indicate the names
of staff assistants to whom the paint-
ings were loaned and that they could
possibly be traced that way.
Johnston, NCFA Assistant Director
Harry Lowe and others at the mu-
seum, a branch of the Smithsonian In-
stitution, contended that part of their
problem is that Clement Conger, the
White House art curator, isn't being
very co-operative.
They said NCFA has asked Conger
for help in tracking down the art, but
the the help has not been forthcom-
ing. "The curator will take no respon-
sibility to help us," Lowe said.
promised in looking for paintings?in
the White House.
"We've said we can't control things
in the EOB, and we can't take respon-
sibility for the art works there," she
said.
The National Journal reported that,
near the end of the Nixon administra-
tion when NCFA became concerned
that loaned objects were being neg-
lected, it found pictures assigned to
Nixon's helicopter were in fact in
housing quarters for U.S. fliers.
Johnston said that since early 1977
a tighter loan and registration policy
has been in effect at the museum.
Any painting loaned to the White
House or its adjuncts since then has
been signed for by its individual bor-
rower.
Conger is out of the country, on va- NCFA says it is unable to place a
Amnm, nth or? harrnurpre namPri nn ratinn but Betty Monkman. reeistrar value on the "outstanding" oaintines.
*theli Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/12/14: CIA-RDP92-00041R000100170019-9