Hidden treasures

>> School board bickers over secret
million-dollar art stash

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Bruno Ugolini has never seen the art treasures owned by the Cultural Heritage Foundation of the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal. But that’s not stopping him from disliking it. “These paintings were appropriated from individuals and schools and put into this foundation. A foundation is usually set up to bring wealth into an institution but this one was formed to bring wealth out,” says Ugolini, a parent active in the politics of our local English Montreal School Board.

Nobody alive seems to know exactly how each painting ended up in the PSBGM schools throughout the last century, but two decades ago its administrators started realizing its value. So in 1980 they decided to guard it from the separatist government by putting it in a private foundation that they controlled. “Back in (former PQ Language Minister Camille) Laurin’s days we thought they’d take them away from the board,” says Allan Butler, the retired PSBGM chairman who stills heads the Heritage Foundation.

While Butler refuses to disclose the contents of the collection, he confirms that it contains around 100 paintings, including a dozen by A.Y. Jackson. Other well-known Canadian artists represented include Adam Sheriff Scott, Anne Savage, George Horne Russell, Harold Beament, Lorne Holland Bouchard, Thoreau MacDonald, Frederick Simpson Coburn, Douglas Lawley, John Little and Richard Short. The value of the art has risen from $650,000 in 1980 to its current $1,039,879, according to Butler.

Butler has consistently refused to reveal the exact location of the individual paintings, citing the constant threat of theft. Indeed Butler claims that one of the works appears to have recently disappeared from a school in Verdun. But he concedes that most of the collection is bolted to walls of the Fielding offices of the EMSB, which remains inaccessible to visitors.

Ugolini and other parents from the former Catholic system consider the secret Protestant treasure trove an example of the former PSBGM’s reluctance to sacrifice for the sake of the EMSB, the board both sides have shared since 1998. “If the wealth of all these constituent school boards was divided equally to benefit all the people it services, why should that aspect be separated from it?” he asks.

The Protestant curator clique

Although documentation concerning the Heritage Foundation, including the names of its board members and its transactions, has remained undisclosed, Butler says that the foundation is largely run by current EMSB commissioners. Ugolini describes that situation as a “conflict of interest,” and points out that the EMSB —which owes about $4.1-million in debts—pays around $2,000 a year to maintain the foundation’s art. “It’s a foundation with a private charter so why should public money be going to pay the fees if there’s no connection between the assets of that foundation and the board?” asks Ugolini. Ugolini has protested vigorously to the provincial Minister of Education about the art but a government rep has told the Mirror that it has no intentions of intervening in the dispute.

Butler sees nothing abnormal about the art hanging in school board offices. “I would have wished the Catholic guys had brought a few of them from the Catholic commission,” he says. “I’ve seen lots of works of art in their offices that I’m sure are well valued.” Butler also notes that if the collection were sold, the EMSB wouldn’t get the all the loot. “Don’t forget parts of the PSBGM went to five school boards in the damn amalgamation,” he says.

Ironically, a rare opportunity for locals to see part of the collection could have emerged recently when actor George Clooney decided to film scenes for an upcoming movie inside an EMSB boardroom, but Clooney had the art removed from the room for the scene.
Butler appears to be open to suggestions about what to do with the art. “There have been discussions about allowing school children to go through and admire the art,” he says. “There was a big discussion about whether we should sell the paintings in order to pay for the PSBGM’s budget deficit at the time but the arguments prevailed that they shouldn’t be sold. We also talked about giving them away to different foundations. It’s an ongoing thing,” says Butler.

Former PSBGM chief and current foundation board member George Vathilakis expects a decision to be taken soon. “I guess at the next meeting the foundation will have to take some kind of a position on what we’re going to be doing with the art,” he says. “We might donate everything to another foundation or some kind of museum.” :