Search for missing Nat'l Gallery artwork fizzles
Published:Wednesday | January 26, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
IT HAS been more than a year since a team from the National Gallery of Jamaica embarked on an extensive search to find eight missing works of art valued at nearly $2 million. However, to date, they have come up empty-handed.
The National Gallery had loaned the paintings to a number of government agencies, including Jamaica House, Vale Royal and the High Commission in Trinidad.
Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis had informed Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last year that her audit uncovered 11 missing pieces of artwork.
During a PAC meeting in Gordon House yesterday, executive director of the gallery, Veerle Poupeye, revealed that four of the unrecovered pieces went missing from 1989.
"This is a very long-standing matter that somehow has remained on our books for that period of time and, given the fact that 22 years have passed, the chances of recovery are significantly (improbable)," she told the committee.
The PAC committee members sought a resolution to the ongoing matter.
Advised to make formal report
Monroe Ellis had first suggested that the gallery should continue its search to find the paintings.
However, after it appeared that the exercise was pointless, the auditor general advised that the gallery should make a formal report to the Ministry of Finance and the police.
Exploring a possible option for the gallery, acting deputy financial secretary, Hope Blake, said the agency should request a write-off from the finance ministry.
The National Gallery has since updated its loans policy and a draft will be sent to the board of the agency for final approval in March.