There have essentially been three reactions to my mission to rescue a sculpture that was stolen from the Massachusetts State House and which is now lonely all across the country in museum storage at LACMA in Los Angeles.
The first is the most common kind of feedback and that which I very much appreciate. It’s something like, Wow, Chris, that is totally insane. Let ‘em have it, man. I hope you get it back.
Some of those readers and followers have kindly reposted and tagged relevant parties, and a few even contacted public officials. Thank you and please keep it up.
Second, there are the trolls who say things like, Don’t you have anything better to write about? These are of course the same losers who you never hear from when you write about surveillance or government contracts or prisons, but who show up when I’m not making the best use of my time, according to them.
A third and increasingly frequent reaction is to ask why I’m doing this. Why I’m dusting off this particular old gem of a story, why I’m doing it at this time, and why it’s so goddamn important to me, a guy who’s not exactly known for his love of fine art, to get this sculpture back to Boston from LA.
It took some introspection, but I have an answer. It’s simple. They shouldn’t get away with it. I proved that the sculpture in question went missing from the State House, was sold by an auction house on Beacon Hill, and gifted to LACMA. That should be enough. I did my job. Now shouldn’t people from the commonwealth and the museum have to do theirs too? Where the hell is the accountability?
The trolls are actually right—I have infinitely more important things to work on. Like the series BINJ is doing tracking several hundred million dollars that’s supposed to be going to mitigating effects of the opioid crisis. We regularly expose waste and impropriety, and rarely see warranted repercussions. And so I guess I want the bust back as a symbolic reminder that even in an era of paywalls and opacity, and in the only state where all three branches of government are exempt from public information requests, that it’s possible to use facts to force powerful people to do the right thing.
Finally, I’m well aware that curmudgeons who beat drums like this and who pass paper flyers out to lawmakers on Beacon Hill are seen as crazy. In my two decades of reporting here, I’ve seen countless watchdogs flip out trying to hold institutions to account. I don’t care though. You’re looking at someone who has long been considered insane by establishment hacks who couldn’t find their way around the State House let alone navigate its backrooms over several hundred years like I did.
They don’t deserve it, but we’re going to get this bust back to Boston for them, too. It’s coming back for all of us.
