Elsewhere on the Net: Lost and Found - by John Nichols

Source: Arts Wire CURRENT at Arts Wire

ELSEWHERE ON THE NET

Two years ago, arts administrator John Nichols found a painting in the trash. This issue of Arts Wire CURRENT closes with his story of how he found the painting, how THE NEW YORK TIMES picked up the story, and how it found a home at the Museum of the City of New York.

John Nichols is the Director of Museum Services at The American Federation of Arts, a nonprofit art museum service organization which provides traveling art exhibitions and educational, professional, and technical support programs developed in a collaboration with the museum community.

LOST AND FOUND by John Nichols

While walking to work from the New York subway on a cold February day in 1997, I passed what looked like a painting peeking out from a pile of trash bags waiting to be picked up. I work with art museums and occasionally read about incredible discoveries found in dumpsters or flea markets. Should I stop to inspect it? I was dangerously close to my office and did not want to be spotted picking through the trash. However, the lure of hidden treasure was too great.

To my amazement, it turned out to be a large and impressive portrait of a well-to-do gentlemen. The years had not been kind to the subject. The canvas was loose on one corner and there were three small punctures.

Still the integrity of the painting was overpowering.

I arrived at my office with my newly discovered treasure. Upon closer inspection, the back of the canvas revealed that the subject was Andrew Foster, Esq., age 76 years, and was painted in 1848 by the New York studio of William Jewett (1795-1873) and Samuel Lovett Waldo. (1783-1861) My research has since discovered that the gentleman was a coffee trader and one of the city's wealthiest citizens, as well as the great-grandfather of Henry Francis duPont. (founder of the Winterthur Museum) Two years after the portrait was completed, he died from massive head injuries suffered in a tragic carriage accident.

This is where my problems began. I could not spare the expense for the care that the painting required. So, what should I do? Perhaps donate it?

I offered it as a gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, but they were not interested because they already have eight by Waldo and Jewett. Several other museums, whose collections would have been complemented by the donation, declined because of the expense of restoration ($3,500 minimum) -- including the Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York), Hagley Museum (Delaware), The Jersey City Museum (New Jersey), The Newark Museum (New Jersey) and the Winterthur Museum. (Delaware)

My search to place the newly discovered painting attracted the attention of THE NEW YORK TIMES. They photographed the painting for a feature that ran in July 1997. It sparked the interest of the National Museum of American Art (DC) and the Museum of the City of New York (New York) who each wanted the painting. I preferred that it go to a New York museum. Fortunately, New York University's Conservation Institute also saw the story and offered to donate the restoration if the painting went to The Museum of the City of New York.

This February, two years after it was found on the trash, there was a dedication and hanging ceremony at the Museum of the City of New York. The painting was a gift to the museum from me in memory of my mother, Ellen Mary Nichols.

Since then I have come to view Mr. Foster as a time traveler who briefly lost his way. I am delighted that I could help him continue his journey!

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