Tracking Art at Libraries

Libraries and Cities Are Terrible at Keeping Track of Art

Sarah Laskow | June 11, 2015

Late in May, when the Boston Public Library was still missing a Rembrandt etching worth $30,000 and a 16th century Dürer print worth $600,000, the situation looked bad. More than a dozen staff members were searching through tens of thousands of prints and drawings, without any luck, and the local press was reporting on a recent audit that had scorched the library for its less-than-stellar inventory management. "It is critical that the BPL have an inventory report that should list each item it owns," the auditors wrote. "This consolidated inventory list does not exist."

Source: http://www.bpl.org/press/files/2015/06/PresRyanLaurenShott_Durer_Rembrandt.jpg

Then, last week, just one day after the library's president announced her resignation, the two prints turned up—just 80 feet from where they were supposed to be.

<more at http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/libraries-and-cities-are-terrible-at-keeping-track-of-art; related link: http://www.bpl.org/press/2015/06/04/missing-durer-and-rembrandt-prints-found/ (Missing Dürer and Rembrandt Prints Found!)>