A painting given to Ohio State by the 1911 freshman class and valued at $150,000 was sold by a university employee to a private art collector for $50,000 last summer.
The oil on canvas “Children at the Beach,” by Columbus artist Alice Schille, hung in the Ohio Union until about 1997, when an employee unfamiliar with the painting’s value accepted a local art dealer’s underpriced offer.
An attorney at OSU’s Legal Affairs office approved the sale. Virginia Tretheway, general counsel for the office, refused to identify the person responsible for the approval.
University officials said the painting is back with OSU as part of the Wexner Center for the Arts‘ private collection. Trethewey, who also is the executive assistant to the president, said it was redonated by an anonymous “friend” of the university who bought the painting back.
She confirmed the sale originated in the administration of the Ohio Union but refused to name the employees involved.
“We are not in the business of pointing fingers,” said university spokesman David Ferguson.
The destination whereabouts of the $50,000 also could not be pinpointed. Tretheway said only that OSU received two $25,000 checks but she was not sure where the money ended up.
University officials refused to provide the transaction documents, including documents indicating OSU has possession of the painting. The Lantern has made formal request for the public records.
Rebecca Lee Parker, director of the Ohio Union at the time of the sale, refused to comment. She was contacted by the Lantern but did not return phone calls after being asked about the painting.
The officials could not confirm that any punitive action was taken against the employee who sold the painting.
They said no one at the time knew the painting was a class gift.
“There were a series of mistakes by people who were acting in good faith,” Ferguson said.
Trethewey said people believed, out of “stupidity,” that it was all right to sell the painting.
It took more than two years after the offer was made to the Ohio Union employee before the painting was approved to be sold. The contract for the sale was handled by an OSU attorney. Trethewey said the attorney believed the price of the painting was correct.
The painting was purchased by Lynda Dickson, a member of the President’s Club.
Dickson acquired copyrights for the piece and made high-quality limited edition prints from it. She advertised them in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The ads mentioned the painting had been part of OSU.
One of the prints was sold for $7,500 last September, as part of a fund-raising charity for Alzheimer’s disease.
Dickson said she also donated one of the prints to a department of University Hospitals. The print hangs at Dodd Hall.
Dickson refused to comment on the case, saying only that she had already lost more than $5,000 in legal fees because of it. Tretheway said no legal action has been taken against Dickson, but said they were possible in the future.
OSU has no policy impeding the sale of art, even if it is a class gift.
“Our checks and balances for those sales are not good,” Ferguson said.
The Wexner Center has a policy that OSU is considering making university-wide, Ferguson said.
All works by Schille, who taught for 44 years at the Columbus Art School, are expected to increase in value after a book on the artist is published in about year, giving her paintings national recognition.
Art appraiser John Bobb, who gave Dickson the $150,000 statement of value, said the painting’s price should increase remarkably if the book on Schille comes out.
“Children at the Beach,” painted in 1911, was one of Schille’s top works.
“It is an extremely fine work of her oil paintings. One of the top,” said Bobb, who also is Schille’s great-great nephew.
While still not recognized nationally, Schille, a post-impressionist and early modernist artist, is well known in Columbus.
“She was wonderful,” said Nanette Maciejunes, senior curator for the Columbus Museum of Art. “If not the best, one of the great city artists.”
