A painting that’s been in City Hall’s sprawling collection of public art since the 1980s and was last known to have been hanging in the office of a top aide to former Mayor Lori Lightfoot is missing.
It’s an abstract work that artist Bill Cass says represented his exploration of “storytelling,” especially folk tales.
If the painting started out as Brothers Grimm, it’s now more a Nancy Drew mystery.
Now missing, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office, city officials say they don’t know what happened to the 3-foot-by-5-foot painting.
The painting had been hanging in the City Hall office of Paul Goodrich, who was Lightfoot’s chief operating officer, from around the end of 2021 until May 2023, when Lightfoot left office, and Johnson succeeded her.
Emails obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show Johnson aides discussed where it might be, planning to press Goodrich on its whereabouts.
They never reported the missing painting to the police.
On Aug. 11, 2023, the city’s curator of collections and public art, Nathan Mason, wrote to the first deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Jennifer Johnson Washington: “I haven’t been able to make headway getting the [Cass] painting that was installed in Paul Goodrich’s office returned. It is not in City Hall. It seems he took it with him when he vacated the office.
“Can you assist? I’d be happy to take a van and pick it up if necessary.”
Later that day, Washington emailed acting Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kenya Merritt, saying: “We have to get this piece back. Can you provide any assistance? We’ve been chasing him since the weekend he moved out and we were turning City Hall over.”
Several days later, another cultural affairs official, Mondine Harding, emailed Goodrich: “Good morning Paul. I am reaching out to you again regarding the above artwork that was on the wall in your City Hall office. When you cleaned out your office that Saturday, the City Hall engineers and Cultural Center staff came to retrieve the picture after you left and it was no longer on the wall.”
Two other city officials “reached out to you that same day to inquire about you checking your belongings for it but I don’t recall the outcome,” Harding wrote. “Please advise us ASAP.”
It’s unclear whether Goodrich responded, though earlier he’d told city officials he didn’t have the art, according to copies of emails.
In an interview, Goodrich says he didn’t take the painting — which Cass says he had sold to the Chicago Public Library in the 1980s, soon after he created it.
It isn’t that valuable. City officials estimate the untitled painting is worth between $500 and $1,000.
But it is city property, though it’s not listed among the roughly 700 items in an inventory of city-owned art objects that range from the stainless steel “Bean” in Millennium Park to the numerous paintings in the city’s branch libraries.
Asked for a list of any missing art, the cultural affairs department says it “does not maintain a list of missing artworks.”
Goodrich told the Sun-Times he planned to visit a personal storage locker to confirm that it isn’t there but that he’s “99.99%” sure it’s not and that it isn’t in his possession.
Now, he says he checked the locker and that the painting wasn’t there.
“No one at City Hall even said anything to me about this,” says Goodrich, adding he didn’t remember the artwork until reporters sent him a photograph.
“I recognize that painting,” he says. The cultural affairs department “asked if I wanted some art, and I said sure. I liked that painting a lot. I chose that. That is a painting that was in my office.”
He says the painting was likely on the wall on his last official Friday at City Hall in 2023 and that, over that weekend, crews went into his office as the change in administration was underway. By that Monday, he says, his walls were painted fresh and the artwork was taken down, with virtually any sign that he’d been there having been “sanitized.”
The missing painting includes images of a red house, a shadowy figure and what looks like a wolf head, all set against a yellowish backdrop and markings that look like scribbles.
While the location of the painting has been unknown for two years, its disappearance surfaced only now because of an unrelated City Hall inspector general’s investigation. Deborah Witzburg, who recently left that office, determined that a city technology contractor Goodrich had dealings with at City Hall hired his son as a paid intern. The inspector general also questioned whether the Chicago contractor — EKI-Digital, run by politically connected businessman Robert Blackwell Jr. — completed all of the work that it invoiced taxpayers for, billing nearly $10 million.
Buried in documents relating to that was a brief mention of the painting.
Johnson’s office says that, in December 2021, the city-owned artwork painted by Cass “was moved to the City Hall office of former Chief Operating Officer Paul Goodrich following a request Goodrich submitted to the Chicago Public Art Collection.
“Shortly after Goodrich vacated his space during the mayoral transition, it was discovered the piece was no longer in his former office. In initial outreach, Goodrich told city personnel he did not possess the painting. The city does not possess any concrete evidence to suggest that Goodrich removed the painting from city premises.
“Following a thorough search of City Hall in August 2023, the departments who oversee the Chicago Public Art Collection were unable to locate the artwork.
“As situations such as this are very uncommon, the Public Art Collection does not keep records of missing artwork. The Chicago Public Art Collection includes nearly 700 works of art kept in over 150 city facilities — there are no other open inquiries regarding reports of artwork… unaccounted for.”