Artwork valued at more than half a million dollars stolen from the Boston Public Library has not been recovered, but board members held a meeting to discuss the situation Wednesday.
Mayor Marty Walsh called for the meeting, but was not in attendance. However, his chief of staff, Daniel Koh, was there, voicing that the mayor's office had "significant concerns that more may be missing" from the library.
The president of the library, Amy Ryan, discussed the priority of finding out how the artwork went missing. She also talked about security solutions to prevent another theft.
"We can do better. This is a problem. We're the victim if the artwork was stolen, citizens of the Commonwealth were victims of a crime," Ryan said.
A library spokesperson also confirmed it was investigating allegations that pages are missing from a music manuscript in the library's special collections; the source or value of the missing pages is not known.
Some are not pleased with finding out artwork was stolen almost a year ago, but the chair for the board of trustees supports Ryan's efforts to recover the valuables.
"I'm sorry it happened. We're going to the bottom of it, but does that eradicate everything President Ryan has achieved? Of course not," chairman Jeffry Rudman said.
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The plans include an expanded and accelerated inventory and assessment of special collections with a focus on the most important and valuable; the transfer of 24,000 paper catalog cards to the electronic catalog; and working with a consultant to improve security in several areas, including the addition of cameras and motion detectors.
A 1634 Rembrandt etching and the 1504 Durer engraving were reported missing last month. Police and the FBI are investigating, although it's not clear if the pieces were stolen or simply misfiled.
