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Reagan Library Has Lost Thousands Of Artifacts

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By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and CATHERINE SAILLANT, Los Angeles Times

Published: November 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is unable to find or account for tens of thousands of valuable mementos of Reagan's White House years because a "near-universal" security breakdown left the artifacts vulnerable to pilfering by insiders, an audit by the National Archives inspector general has concluded.

Inspector General Paul Brachfeld said that his office was investigating allegations that a former employee stole Reagan memorabilia, but that the probe had been hampered by the facility's sloppy record-keeping.

"We have been told by sources that a person who had access capability removed holdings," Brachfeld said. "But we can't lock in as to what those may be."

The hilltop complex near Simi Valley, Calif., that houses Reagan's papers - as well as the Boeing 707 that served as Air Force One for seven presidents - is the most visited of the nation's 12 presidential libraries.

Many of the facilities are understaffed. Many also are struggling to keep track of hundreds of thousands of presidential gifts, including valuable objects bestowed by foreign leaders, American folk crafts as well as T-shirts and political buttons.

Investigators, however, said they encountered the most serious problems at the Reagan library, a finding that may mortify fans of the late president who took offense at government inefficiency.

About six months ago, an archivist was accused of stealing from the collections and was fired, said a longtime volunteer at the library who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.

"It's just awful," she said. "He was someone in a position of trust."

Of particular interest is whether the artifacts that are unaccounted for include pieces from a large collection of ornamented Western belt buckles given to Reagan over the years by admirers who knew of his attachment to his ranch.

A National Archives spokeswoman said the agency had accepted the audit's criticisms and is working to fix the problems. Some library volunteers say they were called in this summer to start a massive inventory project that could take years to complete.

The theft of historical objects from library collections has become a big problem all over the country in recent years. Against that backdrop, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, pushed for the audit of presidential libraries. He feared that artifacts associated with former presidents might attract thieves seeking to supply a burgeoning market for memorabilia.

"This report is a wake up," Grassley said. "These papers, records and other items have historical value and should be safeguarded for the education and benefit of future generations of Americans."

Many gifts to presidents become property of the American people, and presidential libraries use them to tell a story in ways that documents alone cannot. The gifts are considered part of the libraries' museum collections.

The audit found that the Reagan library was unable to properly account for more than 80,000 artifacts out of its collection of about 100,000 such items, and "may have experienced loss or pilferage the scope of which will likely never be known."

It blamed the problem on lack of supervision, concluding that "adequate management controls were neither implemented nor properly monitored."

It also found numerous storage lapses, such as artworks stacked on top of one another, and sculptures and vases unwrapped and lying on their sides on open shelves - in an area prone to earthquakes.

Auditors tried to locate a sample of 21 items from a larger list of "high-value objects." One, a vase, was missing even though library records indicated it was accounted for.

Nine of 26 items contained in two as-yet-unpacked boxes already had gone missing. Among them: a hand-crocheted American flag and an elephant figurine.

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