Museum Tries to Regain Public Trust After Artworks Go Missing

Following a controversy over the loss of borrowed artworks and the former director’s delays in reporting the incident, Arts Maebashi, a public museum in Japan’s central Gunma prefecture, is struggling to rehabilitate its reputation. In March, Japanese art curator and scholar Fumihiko Sumitomo resigned from his position as director after revelations emerged that six artworks had gone missing in January 2020 during a relocation of the museum’s storage and that the museum had delayed informing the city or the artists’ families until months later. The city government, which oversees the museum’s operation, has now set up the Arts Maebashi Review Committee for Better Solutions, with local government officials and art professionals—including the gallerist Tomio Koyama and the director of Hara Museum ARC, Kazuko Aono—to review the incident and to prevent recurrence of similar incidents in the future.

The incident dates back to December 2018, when Arts Maebashi stored 52 artworks, including those from the estate of two Takasaki-born artists, in the computer room of the now-defunct Maebashi Municipal Second Junior High School, which is maintained by the local government. The works were kept in good conditions throughout most of 2019 until December, when the educational committee decided to clean out the old school equipment and sundries. Arts Maebashi’s then deputy director and the curator in charge of the works helped label and separate the artworks from the school property, the latter of which was thrown away by the educational staff in December 2019.

However, when the curator was taking measurements and creating a list for the Maebashi City Art Collection Committee on January 6, 2020, they discovered that three works were missing. After reporting the discovery to then director Sumitomo in late January, the staff then realized on February 3 three more works had disappeared as well. The six lost works totaled four woodblock prints and two works of calligraphy. Due to Japan’s privacy policies, the names of the two artists, the deputy director, and the curator have not been made public by the city or the museum.   

The museum did not apologize to the bereaved families of the artists until July, nearly six months after the initial discovery. The city government of Maebashi organized an investigation committee to look into the case in December 2020, and on March 24, 2021, published a summary of the 726-page report, which details the course of the incident as well as the records of the multiple meetings and conversations throughout. According to their investigation, former director Sumitomo and the curator attempted to cover up the loss and wanted to delay notifying the owners. In the report written by the curator to Sumitomo, the suggested resolution reads: “Considering that there will be negative reactions and media reports questioning the conservation of artworks at Arts Maebashi or in Maebashi City, it is the best to avoid revealing or publicizing the facts as they are.” In addition, the report reveals that Sumitomo and the curator attempted to alter the original list of works, since the museum needed to maintain their relationship with the estates for their 2022 exhibitions. The report says that Sumitomo and the curator planned to deceive the owners that they “didn’t borrow such works from them in the first place.”

All of these allegations were denied and rebuked by Sumitomo at a press meeting on March 25, 2021, before his official departure from the museum. In terms of altering the inventory list, Sumitomo stated, “The curator thought that the original work list might be inaccurate (in fact there could be mistakes during the ‘data-fication’ of so many artworks), and considered the possibility that the museum didn’t receive those works in the first place.” As for the delay in notification, Sumitomo cited the obstructions brought by Covid-19, and explained that based on the possibility of not having received those works in the first place, the team spent time investigating the incident between February and March 2020. Sumitomo apologized once again to the artwork owners, and emphasized that there was no attempt to cover up the losses or falsify the records, since the team reported them to the government and notified the families soon after they verified the inventory list, confirmed the loss, and ruled out other possibilities. At the same event, he also directed the problem to the management and structural issues concerning the storage of works at the public museums in Japan.

The incident and its revelations have stirred debate across the art community in Japan, causing the Japanese branch of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA Japan) to issue two responses on the matter. On May 2, 2021, AICA Japan released a statement and sent a letter to the mayor of Maebashi City to show support for Sumitomo and criticize the government for their intervention in the independent operations of the museum while treating the museum director as a scapegoat for the missing artworks. However, after AICA examined the 726-page report produced by the city government, the association retracted its original statement and issued an apology on May 31, which expressed regrets for their misunderstanding over the case and condemned Sumitomo’s unprofessional acts of cheating and concealment as “betraying the work ethics of a curator and critic.”

Following his resignation from the museum, Sumitomo quit his membership at AICA Japan, but continues to teach as a professor at the Department of Arts Studies and Curatorial Practices, Tokyo University of the Arts. As confirmed by Arts Maebashi, the unnamed curator who was in charge of the missing works continues to work at the museum.

When ArtAsiaPacific reached out to Arts Maebashi, the spokesperson responded that the museum is currently being led by the manager of Maebashi’s Cultural and International Affairs, Tutomu Tanaka, who has served as the acting director since April. As for the appointment of the new director, Arts Maebashi responded, “We must discuss the image of [a] person who is capable to lead the way to prevent a recurrence by [the] reinforcement of governance [and] appropriate management of artworks.” The spokesperson added, “We would like to regain trust as an art museum by making sure to prevent a recurrence and [provide] careful support for [the] artworks’ owner.”

Sumitomo did not respond to ArtAsiaPacific’s request for comments on the matter.

Pamela Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s assistant editor. 

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