Toronto Star EDITORIAL
May 18, 2009
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/635686
Toronto’s public school board has been so preoccupied lately by the future of its unfunded swimming pools that another of its legacies – a remarkable but unheralded collection of Canadian art – has languished almost forgotten.
Last week, the Star’s Kristin Rushowy gave readers an exclusive glimpse of the treasures locked away in the board’s art vault, including the jewel in the crown: a Tom Thomson painting that hung for years in the principal’s office at Riverdale Collegiate but now goes unseen.
Purchased by an art teacher for $50 shortly after Thomson’s death, Autumn Scene is today worth $1.5 million.
Of course, not all of the 7,000 pieces in the collection command sky-high prices. But about 155 of the most valuable paintings are worth an estimated $7 million.
That raises the question of how to handle this apparent embarrassment of riches: Sell to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to spruce up pools? Keep the showpieces out of sight? Sell prints for fundraising? It’s an enviable dilemma for school trustees more accustomed to dealing with perennial budget shortfalls than fire sales.
There are no easy answers. Toronto’s public schools are hardly suited to displaying the most valuable artworks, which require proper curatorial handling. Curating and restoring the art works could be a continued drain on the system.
But it would be a shame to keep many of the less valuable pieces out of sight from students and teachers, who might soon get reacquainted with a piece of our history.