A 110-work art collection of the former Protestant School

An all-but-secret treasure trove of art came to light just before Christmas with the announcement by a Montreal foundation that it would be selling works by some of the country’s most famous artists, gathered over nearly 80 years by the now-defunct Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal.

For more than 20 years these works, by A.Y. Jackson, Anne Savage, Robert Pilot, Frederick Simpson Coburn and Adam Sherriff Scott among others, have languished in the private offices and corridors of what had been the PSBGM’s headquarters in Notre Dame de Grace, and is now the English Montreal School Board’s,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. seen by administrators and cleaning staff.

For most Montrealers, news that much of the collection of 110 paintings and lithographs is to be either sold or donated to museums was the first they had ever heard of it. Yet it is, by curator Angelo Komatsoulis’s account, a collection of great historical interest and artistic importance. It includes 10 oil paintings and six lithographs by Group of Seven artist A.Y. Jackson; a number of paintings by Montreal painter and art instructor Anne Savage, including 14 or 15 1.8-meter-high panels that were bolted to the walls of then Baron Byng High School’s cafeteria; four “rather gruesome” First World War paintings by Robert Pilot; two works by Adam Sherriff Scott; and 21 engravings by various artists of the history of Quebec City, including drawings of the British naval bombardment in 1759.

Komatsoulis is one of 19 members of the Cultural Heritage Foundation of the PSBGM, a non-profit body set up in 1980 to look after the art works that had been donated to individual schools. The “collection” is in reality a random assortment of gifts that were more or less well cared for, he said. The only purchase the school board made, sometime in the 1960s, was of 21 engravings of Quebec history.

The gifts date back to the 1930s, he said, to a time when grateful parents or alumni said ‘Thank you’ to a school by donating a painting. It was a practice that had died out by the 1960s, said Komatsoulis, who retired from his position as director-general of the English Montreal School Board in 2000. He previously was director-general of the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal.

By 1980, when the anglophone population was in serious decline and schools began closing, the question of what to do with the art works became pressing, Komatsoulis said.The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry, The school board decided, he said, that schools were “not in the business of maintaining art collections,” and at that point the foundation was created.

“The foundation has the legal right to maintain, enrich and sell the art,” Komatsoulis said. “Over the past two years, the foundation members have discussed at length what to do with the art,” he said. “We were concerned that the works were being seen only by the individuals in whose offices they were displayed and not by the general public. We also wanted students to benefit, through scholarships made possible by the sale.”

Thirty of the most important art works will be sold through Heffel auction house in the spring. Another 25 works will be auctioned in an Internet sale, Komatsoulis said. The foundation expects the sales to bring in about $1 million, he said. The collection as a whole was evaluated in 2011 at $1.5 million. The foundation had the collection re-evaluated this year after deciding to disburse the majority of the works. “The three auction houses involved in bidding came up with roughly the same figure of $1.5 million,” Komatsoulis said.

The money from the two sales will be used to provide post-secondary scholarships to English Montreal School Board graduates. Details of how much each scholarship will be worth and how many students will be eligible have yet to be worked out.

The foundation hopes that even though the most important art works are to be sold, they will still end up in museums, available for public viewing. “It’s the recent trend with works by A.Y. Jackson, Anne Savage and Robert Pilot, for museums to buy their works,” Komatsoulis said.

The foundation plans to donate an additional 25 works directly to museums,Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers including the 21 engravings. The four gruesome and large (3 meters by 4.6 meters) Robert Pilot paintings will be donated as well, to the War Museum in Ottawa, Komatsoulis said. “Pilot was a war correspondent, one of the first to be out with the army on the battlefields.”

The foundation is also trying to place, with a museum with an in-house restoration service such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, a series of Anne Savage paintings once bolted to the walls of Baron Byng’s cafeteria, the school where Savage taught for 28 years. Komatsoulis said the cost of restoration came as a shock when he researched the matter several years ago. “It was hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. “They’re worth it. They’re amazing. They’re wraparound, continuous, but we don’t have the money.” The panels are sitting in crates, in storage, he said.

This leaves about 30 works that will remain in the foundation’s care after the sales and donations are completed, Komatsoulis said. The foundation will decide later what to do with the remaining works which, for the time being, will remain at the EMSB’s head office, he said.

Apparently alone among EMSB commissioners, Julien Feldman protested in an email last week that the foundation members were failing in their mandate to preserve a collection “of great important and cultural significance to Montreal’s anglophone community.”

Steven Lee Adams will soon be receiving a large crate at his studio in Mapleton containing a painting he loaned to the U.S. ambassador to South Africa three years ago. His painting has been hanging in the embassy there as part of the Art in Embassies Program.

In an excerpt from a letter sent to Adams by Ambassador Donald Gips, he thanked the artist and wrote, "As I conclude my tenure as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, I want to thank you for the beautiful artwork you so generously lent to my wife, Liz, and I to display in our residence. Your piece, 'Winter Evening' was a gorgeous addition to our home and we have received countless compliments on it. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Art in Embassies program, an important tool for U.S. diplomacy. As Secretary Clinton said, art provides us 'with another language of diplomacy, one that evokes our universal aspirations as human beings, our common challenges and our responsibilities for thinking through and addressing the problems that we face together.' I am honored that we were able to showcase your work to the scores of South African, American and other international visitors we have hosted over the last three years."

"When Donald Gips and his wife came into my gallery I knew them well since they had been my customers for years," said Mary Williams, owner of Mary Williams Fine Arts in Boulder, Colo. "He had been appointed as ambassador to South Africa and was looking for art for the embassy.Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability.This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. They are not allowed to hang their private collection in the public areas but must choose works from museums and professional art galleries."

"The ambassador chose my painting because he wanted something that reflected the Rocky Mountains and the West," Adams said. "The paintings help the ambassadors feel at home while they are living abroad and expose international visitors to American art.

"This particular painting was from a photo I took after I had finished skiing at Sundance. I was in the upper parking lot area and I saw this image at the end of the day and took out my camera that I carry everywhere for just that purpose. I'm an artist and I look for those images in nature."

The award-winning Utah artist began his painting career at a young age after being encouraged by his family, especially his grandmother, who recognized his talent when he was in fifth grade. His art teacher at Lakeridge Jr. High encouraged him and he took art classes at BYU, but he didn't paint full-time until he was 30 years old.

"I had married young and had four children to support," Adams said. "After my divorce at age 30 I decided I would try and be an artist full-time. My dad, a friend, and Repartee Gallery helped me to be able to paint for nine months and have a show, which launched my career. I try to tell young people it's not too late to do something. Being an artist can be terrifying. When you have a job you can do your work without a lot of people looking at you all the time, but when you are an artist it's like running out into the world naked. It takes courage to put yourself out there. It's worth it when you see people crying and telling you that your paintings touch them."