Management of Artwork

In the late 1960s, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation commissioned artwork depicting its water projects in the West. Because of inadequate record-keeping and controls, the Bureau has been unable to locate about 40 percent of the paintings, watercolors, and sketches in its collection. Some of the missing artwork may have been lost or stolen, and other pieces may have been returned to the original artists. The Bureau has done what it can to identify and locate the missing pieces, and since 1987 it has strengthened its accountability and controls over the remaining 201 pieces of art. Few of these pieces have been seriously damaged, and the Bureau has begun restoring the most valuable among them. The Bureau has not yet decided, however, how best to display its collection in offices and public facilities or loan out pieces for exhibit after their restoration.

GAO found that: (1) according to the index cards used to track the receipt and disposition of the pieces, Reclamation has 352 pieces of commissioned artwork to record the role of water in the West, but the location of 153 pieces, about 40 percent of the collection, is unknown; (2) a March 1990 appraisal of 196 pieces in the collection estimated its total value to be about $1.7 million; (3) beginning in 1987, Reclamation made various efforts to identify and locate artwork, including searching Department of the Interior and Reclamation offices, conducting annual inventories, and updating index cards and property records; (4) Reclamation believes that the missing artwork has been lost or stolen and that many of the missing pieces may have been preliminary works returned to the artists; (5) although Reclamation has not always properly cared for its artwork, few pieces are seriously damaged; (6) factors contributing to the art collection's deterioration include storage or display in poor environmental conditions, improper framing, and inadequate handling and storage; (7) Reclamation estimated the cost of restoring the collection at about $250,000; (8) Reclamation designated a locked, windowless, air-conditioned room for storing the half of its artwork collection that is not on display; and (9) Reclamation does not have policies or procedures for displaying its artwork in public facilities or for loaning its artwork.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: