Art is unseen in Scottsdale city vault

Scottsdale’s Public Art Program boasts of its more than 2,000-piece collection. But nearly three-quarters of those pieces are locked in a vault, unseen by the public.

Between 1,400 and 1,500 pieces are held in the vault, located in the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, said Valerie Vadala Homer, director of the art program.

The pieces primarily consist of collections of the S cottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, plus donated works of smaller sculptures, paintings and photographs that make up the art board’s municipal collection, Homer said.

The program also commissions public art works, such as the popular "Love" sculpture on the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall or the planned public art at the new Scottsdale Waterfront project, which are always on display.

Some of the pieces in the museum’s permanent collection usually are taken out of the vault once a year for temporary display, Homer said. Some of the locked-up art that requires certain temperature or security requirements is never displayed outside the museum.

City and art officials, including Homer, did not allow the Tribune to see the vault or the works in it, saying to do so would compromise security.

The city has had very few problems with loss or theft from the vault, but some pieces end up missing.

In the last inventory of the city’s art collection, nine pieces were classified as missing and one as stolen.

Homer said past missing or stolen art works are counted in current inventories and that only two pieces were missing this year.

The first was a painting that had been stored behind several heavy objects in the vault that recently were moved.

The second piece’s location likely was just mislabeled and it probably will be found by the next inventory, Homer said, adding that it is worth less than $20.

Officials check for the previously missing pieces each inventory, but they have not yet been found, Homer said.

"You’re looking at a list that’s a 10-year-old list with more than 2,000 objects," she said.

The one piece the art group has classified as stolen — a flag that astronaut Alan Bean carried to the moon — was reported missing about five years ago, Homer said.

She did not know how much the flag is worth.

The online space art gallery, www.novaspace.com, is selling a 4-by-6-inch flag allegedly carried to the moon by Bean for $7,495.

City Councilman Wayne Ecton said he does not know the particulars of how the vault works or why there’s so much art in it. But he lamented the potential loss to the public.

"I’d like to hear more about why it’s there," he said. "It seems to me that it could be a waste."

While the art program is doing a good job, Ecton said it certainly could do better.

"I would prefer that we have more public art all over the city and not just concentrated as it is in central Scottsdale," he said.