Quantcast
‘Missing’ $600K artworks found exactly where they were supposed to be in the Boston Public Library – Metro US

‘Missing’ $600K artworks found exactly where they were supposed to be in the Boston Public Library

‘Missing’ $600K artworks found exactly where they were supposed to be in the
DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Two rare pieces of artwork reported missing from the Boston Public Library – valued at more than $600,000 – were found Thursday in the library’s own stacks exactly where they were supposed to be.
But, unfortunately forBoston Public Library president Amy Ryan, the rare Rembrandt etching and Albrecht Dürer engraving were not found before she announced she would be resigning on July 3. Her resignation was largely due to mounting criticism from Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration after the pieces supposedly went missing in April.
Lauren Shott, a conservation officer, found the artworks 80 feet from where they should havebeen after looking through the library’s stacks herself.
The works, an 8-by-11-inch Durer etching, entitled “Adam and Eve,” and a 5-by-6 inch Rebrandtself-portrait were both filed to their correct locations, the library said.
For eight weeks 14 library staff members searched more than half of the library’s 200-year-oldinventory and the FBI and Boston Police Department also launched investigations.
Ryan announced she would resign after eight years at the helm of America’s oldest public library.
“I love Boston, and I love the Boston Public Library,” Ryan, 64, said in a telephone interview with the Boston Globe.
“I teamed up with the staff and the public and we accomplished a lot of great things.”
The Rembrandt etching valued between $20,000 and $30,000 and an Albrecht Dürer engraving of Adam and Eve worth more than $600,000 were reported missing on April 8.
The Walsh administration hammered Ryan for claiming to not know about the missing pieces that BPL staff knew were missing for nearly a year.
But in an interview with The Globe, Walsh said he did not ask for her resignation. “Ultimately it falls on the leader,” Walsh told the Globe. “You’re supposed to have faith and trust in the team you have around you.”
Additional reporting by Christina Beiene