[CPProt.net] Salt Lake County antiques missing

[MSN CPPnet]

Salt Lake County antiques missing 

Nearly half of pieces fail to turn up in an audit
By Erin Stewart
Deseret Morning News

      No one has been keeping an eye on antiques belonging to Salt Lake
County, and many of those pieces may now be lost, according to an audit
released Wednesday.
      Nearly half of 162 antiques turned up missing after county auditors
scoured the Hansen Planetarium, the City-County Building and the District
Attorney's Office.
      Working off a 1996 registry, the auditor's office was only able to
find 87 of the three buildings' 162 pieces. The rest, the report says, could
"have been lost, stolen or converted to personal use."
      The search represents a sizable portion of the county's 227 pieces
with a total value of about $42,000. That figure, however, only takes into
account the actual value of items like chairs and desks but could be larger
if the items are truly antiques and have appreciated over the years.
      The majority of the lost pieces were supposed to be in either the
City-County Building in Salt Lake - which the county used to occupy - or in
the former Metropolitan Hall of Justice that was demolished in 2001.
 
  
      During those transitions, some pieces were relocated to the District
Attorney's Office, but some "were disposed of when the building was torn
down due to their obvious dilapidated condition," the report said.
      Roughly 73 percent of the 26 antiques registered at the Metropolitan
Hall of Justice were not located, and nearly 76 percent of the 62 items from
the City-County Building were missing.
      Twenty-eight percent of pieces at the Hansen Planetarium were also not
found, with chairs topping the list of the missing items.
      Jim Wightman, director of the county's audit division, said he
believed most of the missing pieces will turn up and have either been moved
to county storage or have found their way into different offices. A more
exhaustive search could pinpoint many of the unaccounted-for antiques, he
said.
      "It's the first time anyone's looked at this problem in nine years.
There's been no thorough inventory done," he said.
      While County Auditor Sean Thomas said the $42,000 value of the pieces
is not overly significant, the assets should be tracked regardless.
      And the numbers can add up for some of the pricier items. Two rolltop
desks purchased in 1960, for example, were not found and had a total value
of $5,000. The most expensive item on the county's antique list - an organ
worth $4,000 - is supposed to be at the Capitol Theatre but was not included
in the auditor's search.
      "We only did what we could; we didn't try to track everything,"
Wightman said.
      But the estimated value of the pieces could be exaggerated, Wightman
added, because many of the items may not be in good enough condition to
merit quality antique status, and some may just be old furniture.
      Several chairs on the antiques registry, for example, were actually
replicas of older chairs at the City-County Building, he said.
      "We call them antiques because they're old furniture, but we haven't
had any expert come in and say these really are antiques," Wightman said.
      Most of the county's antique items were acquired during the 1960s and
are mostly furniture like benches, desks and chairs. The list also includes
several player pianos, clocks, an adding machine and a coin changer.
      Currently, those pieces are recorded by the auditor's office, but
there is no specific oversight or management of the collection.
      The lack of oversight for the pieces prompted a recommendation from
the county auditor's office to appoint an antiques coordinator to attempt to
find each piece and determine if it is actually an antique.
      "Someone needs to be put in charge of the inventory," Thomas said.
"They could tell us if this is an antique or if it is just old junk."
      In addition to a coordinator, the audit recommends an annual review of
the county's pieces, as well as a more thorough investigation to identify
the missing items. Actual control of the pieces should also be turned over
to the individual divisions housing the antiques instead of through the
auditor's office, the report said.
      While the antique audit turned up a few holes, Thomas is quick to
point out that a recently completed art audit showed the county had nearly
perfect accountability for its art pieces.
      All but one of the county's 436 pieces of artwork were found, Thomas
said.
      That artwork has much more of a financial impact on the county than
its antiques collection, he added, with a total value of $1.6 million.

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