News

The Frank L. Melega Art Museum is an equal opportunity provider.

Do you the whereabouts of Frank L. Melega’s painting Crossing the Bridge?

Oil Painting - 18.5 x 22.75 inches

The Mystery of the Missing Melega Painting:

Friends of Art Offers Amnesty for Missing Artworks

By M. Thomas / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sun Mar 13, 2016 12:00 AM EST

In 1916, a group of visual art aficionados, now known as the Friends of Art, formed to purchase original artworks for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Over time some of those works have disappeared, and the Friends and the schools are offering a no-questions-asked amnesty for the return of any artwork or information related to a missing work.

The amnesty is not about blame or criminal prosecution, said Jody Guy, visual arts coordinator for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. “There’s nothing we want to convey to people other than thank you, thank you, for returning the work.”

Artworks and/ or information will be accepted by Alison Oehler, gallery director, Concept Art Gallery, 1031 S. Braddock Ave., Regent Square. She may also be reached at 412-242-9200 or alison@conceptgallery.com.

“It’s a neutral space,” Ms. Guy said. “We wanted to encourage people [to return the works]. We don’t want them to feel uncomfortable. We want to make it as easy as possible for them.”

The impetus for the amnesty is a centennial exhibition of Friends of Art works that will be held at the Senator John Heinz History Center opening Sept. 16 and continuing through June 2017.

“This is the first time a comprehensive representation of the collection is being shown to the public,” Ms. Guy said. “We want to represent as much of that legacy as we can.”

It is also a milestone year for the Friends of the Art collection which acquired its final piece earlier this year.

“The collection was begun in 1916. It’s 2016 and we’re getting ready to celebrate at the history center. The collection is in a sense complete. We’re done,” Ms. Guy said.

Ms. Guy has been visual arts coordinator since 2010, but the project to catalog all Friends of Art work began earlier, led by local artists Adrienne Heinrich and Patricia A. Sheahan. Early on it became evident that works were missing.

A big change in the approach to the collection came, Ms. Guy said, when one of the paintings was sold at auction in 2013 yielding about $750,000 to the district. Some of that was earmarked to care for the collection.