A London, Ont., school board is using one of Ontario’s most powerful secrecy provisions to avoid disclosing records about a modest art collection.
Records obtained by CBC News though freedom of information requests show the collection — held by Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) — consists of 84 works of art with a total appraised value of $30,445, or roughly $360 per piece, based on an appraisal conducted in 2012.
The inventory identifies some artists in the collection, allowing CBC to confirm works attributed to figures such as Frank (Franz) Johnston, Manly MacDonald and Benjamin Chee Chee. However, most individual titles are obscured by redactions, making it impossible to determine the full size, range and scope of the collection.
Ontario school boards hold extensive collections of publicly owned art, much of it acquired through donations decades ago and managed without museum-level resources.
The TVDSB disclosure raises broader questions about how public institutions in Canada account for cultural assets such as fine art and how secrecy provisions intended for high-risk situations can be applied even when the financial stakes are relatively low.
Board officials said interim director Bill Tucker was not available for an interview and declined to make him available without receiving questions in advance.
Provincial oversight, uneven disclosure
The TVDSB is one of five boards in Ontario currently under provincial supervision for financial mismanagement, a status that gives government-appointed supervisors broad authority over spending and operations.
Of those five, only the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has publicly disclosed its any of its art holdings, a collection valued at up to $10 million in 2010, with 13 signature pieces house at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The remaining boards have made no comparable disclosures. The Peel District School Board, The Toronto Catholic School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board did not respond to requests for comment.
A freedom of information request seeking an inventory of TVDSB’s artworks, locations and governing policies was granted only in part. Following a second, more tailored request, the TVDSB released only aggregate figures.
Officials withheld details about where the art is stored or displayed, citing legal exemptions under Ontario’s freedom of information laws for economic interests and for records whose disclosure could “reasonably be expected to seriously threaten the safety or health of an individual.”
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner says this exemption is intended for cases involving serious risks. CBC News has filed an appeal.
TVDSB told CBC News it could find no records to support a long-circulating claim that a single painting at one of its schools was worth millions of dollars.
Secrecy as risk management
Experts say the use of safety exemptions in cases like this reflects a broader pattern in public institutions, where secrecy is sometimes treated as a default risk-management tool — even when it might have the opposite effect.
Cara Krmpotitch, a professor of museum studies at the University of Toronto, says the inventory released by the TVDSB resembles many small public collections assembled gradually through donations, often before modern standards of documentation and stewardship were widely adopted.
“In some cases they’re poorly documented,” she said, adding an organization like a school board “isn’t going to have the money to necessarily care for them.”
Krmpotitch says that while such collections may appear modest in financial terms, their cultural and educational value can still be significiant, particularly when students encounter works by local or Indigenous artists in their daily environment.
Why inventories matter
Christopher Marinello, an art recovery lawyer and founder of Art Recovery International based in London, England, says incomplete inventories and undisclosed collections can become more vulnerable over time — not less.
Marinello says that citing safety concerns as a reason for not disclosing a modestly valuable art collection is like “an admission they don’t have it properly curated and protected.”
“This idea of secrecy is only a short-term solution,” he said. “A lot of these institutions quickly realize it’s more of an albatross to take care of these things.”
Marinello says institutions often argue that disclosing details about artworks could create security risks, but he warns that secrecy also carries risks if anything happens to the art.
“Everything that comes into an institution needs to be catalogued or there’s no hope for recovery” if something goes missing.
“If you don’t know what you have, then you don’t know what’s missing.”
Both Krmpotitch and Marinello say it’s common for artworks in schools, hospitals and universities to be treated as office furnishings rather than cultural assets — hanging in hallways or offices for decades without monitoring.
In one case, a $10,000 painting by Canadian artist Herbert S. Palmer was discovered in a principal’s private washroom at Toronto’s Humberside Collegiate Institute in 2016.
Gap in oversight
Asked what information the province holds about art collections at boards under supervision, Emma Testani, press secretary for Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra, did not answer directly.
“In school boards under supervision, the minsiter has asked supervisors to explore every options to restore stability and protect classroom learning,” she wrote in an email. “Our priority is ensuring resources are directed back into classrooms so teachers have the support they need and students have the best chance to succeed.”
The statement did not indicate whether supervisors are required to inventory or report on non-financial assets such as artwork, or whether the province maintains its own holdings records.
Advocates say the gap between fiscal oversight and cultural stewardship is not unique to Ontario. Across Canada, school boards, hospitals and universities hold works of art that were donated decades ago and now sit outside clear accountability frameworks.
Krmpotitch says the concern isn’t necessarily undiscovered materpieces, but that works can quietly disappear over time if they’re poorly documented.
“And in some cases. an organization like a board isn’t going to have the money to necessarily take care of them.”
