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Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) officials are seeking to track down more than 100 works of Indigenous art held in a federal collection whose whereabouts are unknown.
The Indigenous Art Collection has a total of 5,176 works by established and emerging First Nations, Metis me toonight performers, valued at around $14.4 million.
It is in charge of the Center for Indigenous Art, which was established in 1965 to support the acquisition, protection, preservation and promotion of contemporary Indigenous art, and has a gallery in Gatineau, Que.
According Following a collection audit conducted in November 2024, the collection was moved from the Gatineau facility in 2022, due to renovations, and temporarily placed in a Public Services and Procurement Canada storage facility, as well as a third-party storage facility, within the National Capital Region.
the sai auditd 132 works “were not counted.”
At a meeting of the standing committee on Canadian Heritage on Nov. 19, CIRNAC associate deputy minister Rob Wright said its estimated value is $49,000 or about 0.34 per cent of the value of the total collection.
Deputy Minister Valerie Gideon told the committee that 12 have been located and 20 are reproductions. she saidMost of the missing pieces were loaned to government offices in the 1980s for display purposes.
The loan program ended in 2017 and offices were asked to return the art.
conservative MP Rachael Thomas asked Yoif they have or are notifying indigenous artists.
“We are not notifying because the parts have not been written off,” Gideon said.
Gideon said that means they have not yet been positively identified as missing under estate rules and procedures.
Gideon said since they are still working on tracking inventory and reconciling cataloging systems, they cannot be considered missing.
Conservative MP Kerry Diotte asked Gideon: “How can something be missing that you can’t find and it’s not missing?” calling it “complete doublespeak.”
“There is no evidence of irregularities”
The audit also said that at the time of the audit there were no working security cameras at the temporary storage facility, that a water leak at one of the storage facilities had damaged three paintings and that maintenance records for the heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems were incomplete.
In a written statement, CIRNAC spokesperson Pascal Laplante said the department understands its responsibility for collection and has accepted all of the auditor’s recommendations.
“These pieces are considered ‘missing,’ not stolen, and there is no evidence of irregularities,” the statement said.
Laplante said they have implemented improvements in record keeping and collection management so similar circumstances do not occur.
“These include securing and maintaining storage, improving oversight and accountability, establishing long-term financial planning, strengthening operational controls, and evaluating the current governance structure.”
