The Great Logan, Utah Art Theft
Logan City School Superintendent, Frank Schofield, is no Thomas Crown, the millionaire international art thief played by Steve McQueen in the original 1968 film ‘The Thomas Crown Affair‘, then by Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 remake.
Thomas Crown loved art.
Schofield and the Logan City school board have elected to auction off valuable and sentimentally priceless paintings, owned by the people of Logan, to unknown bidders at a some mid-level auction house in Salt Lake City at noon, Wednesday, January 31st.
But here’s the thing ...Schofield, as head of the school district, and the Logan City school board, are not the owners of the art, they are Trustees. We trust them with the stewardship of our kids’ education, and our property, to preserve and protect it.
Here’s what ‘s going on.
Over the past 100 years, the Logan City School District has accumulated valuable works of art, paintings, by a wide variety of Utah artists, many of whom have gone on to international fame. This post-impressionist art had been purchased over the years by various individuals, students, parents, art teachers, etc., and has hung on the walls of our Logan City elementary and middle schools, and Logan High School. Over the years, as many of these artists have become celebrated, their works subsequently became much more valuable than whatever they were originally purchased for.
There is a James Taylor Howard original valued at over $30,000. Other artists include Minerva Teichert, LeConte Stewart, Berger Sandzen, Barse Miller, Waldo Midgley, Henri Moser, Mabel Frazer, Lawrence Squires and Philip Barkdull. Google these names and look at their incredibly beautiful paintings.
Over time, the paintings were distributed randomly among the various schools in the district as they were purchased. They were taken down when the walls were painted, they were put back up. Some were moved again for remodeling and renovation. Some were never put back up and were stored away in school basements and warehouses around Logan. Some were damaged, some were probably pilfered, most were neglected and relegated to “school surplus” along with filing cabinets, desks and other ancient, long forgotten school paraphernalia.
As time rolled on through the decades, the paintings moved on toward the back of the warehouse to make room for new “school surplus”. The dust collected. The boxes and filing cabinets, and desks and chairs began to crowd the warehouse as the paintings got pushed farther back and out of reach of the custodians, out sight of the janitors, and out of the minds of the teachers and students who bought them. The new teachers and students don’t even know they ever existed.
This is classic art history story. Thomas Crown, eat your heart out!
2017, and along comes our new Logan City School Superintendent, Frank Schofield, replacing our golden parachute, gold brick, former administrator, Marshal Garrett. I say this with a bit of passion and knowledge as it was Garrett who was responsible for the termination, murder, of the towering and beloved 100 year-old cottonwood trees along the canal in back of Logan High, buy the Memorial Bridge. Long story, but they did not need to come down. To me, this is indicative of the kind of corporate thinking over there regarding preservation and protection. But like the art in question, the new students and teachers don’t know those trees ever existed.
Time heals all wounds for those of us who remember and respect the past. Hopefully, it wounds all heels in the final analysis.
Garrett retired a few years ago, but has been kept on as a paid “consultant” for the new Logan High School renovation and extension. I’m sure a pricey gig that the public is also paying for.
So, along comes Schofield who inherited the new building construction oversee, which has been reported as being grossly over estimate and over budget.
Schofield realizes he needs money to pay for the building, but there’s only so much money in the budget, and there has already been several bond issues. He diverts funds from the other schools in the district who are in need of their own repairs, supplies, and budgets, but that’s still not enough to cover the construction costs, gold brick Garrett’s consultant fees, and all the other line items he is now responsible for on a monthly basis. Bills. He’s desperate. He calls school board meetings with his, now accomplices, Business Administrator, Jeff Barben and school board members Kristie Cooley, Lisa Hopkins, Connie Morgan, Jenny Johnson, and Ann Geary. Schofield projects his desperation onto them. Now they feel the burn of Schofield’s burden.
The guy has a problem. It’s his first job in the big leagues. He needs money. His budget is in shambles. Ah ha, ‘lets auction off “school surplus” which now includes high ticket items like the paintings’. Who knew? Some money there. I’m surprised the paintings were even identified as valuable over standard “school surplus”.
Schofield has offered a reasonable explanation for his actions. But, still. There is a lack of appreciation being observed here, not only for art, but for insight and imagination as well.
I’m no business manager and Frank Scofield is no Thomas Crown. Neither of us owns these paintings. The people of Logan, Utah do.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
