{"id":717394,"date":"2026-06-21T13:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717394\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T13:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:11:19","slug":"the-case-of-the-missing-city-hall-artwork-wheres-the-painting-that-hung-in-top-lightfoot-aides-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/717394\/","title":{"rendered":"The case of the missing City Hall artwork: Where’s the painting that hung in top Lightfoot aide’s office?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A painting that\u2019s been in City Hall\u2019s sprawling collection of public art since the 1980s and was last known to have been hanging in the office of a top aide to former Mayor Lori Lightfoot is missing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an abstract work that artist Bill Cass says represented his exploration of \u201cstorytelling,\u201d especially folk tales.<\/p>\n

If the painting started out as Brothers Grimm, it\u2019s now more a Nancy Drew mystery.<\/p>\n

Now missing, according to Mayor Brandon Johnson\u2019s office, city officials say they don\u2019t know what happened to the 3-foot-by-5-foot painting.<\/p>\n

The painting had been hanging in the City Hall office of Paul Goodrich, who was Lightfoot\u2019s chief operating officer, from around the end of 2021 until May 2023, when Lightfoot left office, and Johnson succeeded her.<\/p>\n

Emails obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show Johnson aides discussed where it might be, planning to press Goodrich on its whereabouts.<\/p>\n

They never reported the missing painting to the police.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 11, 2023, the city\u2019s curator of collections and public art, Nathan Mason, wrote to the first deputy commissioner of the city\u2019s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Jennifer Johnson Washington: \u201cI haven\u2019t been able to make headway getting the [Cass] painting that was installed in Paul Goodrich\u2019s office returned. It is not in City Hall. It seems he took it with him when he vacated the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you assist? I\u2019d be happy to take a van and pick it up if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that day, Washington emailed acting Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kenya Merritt, saying: \u201cWe have to get this piece back. Can you provide any assistance? We\u2019ve been chasing him since the weekend he moved out and we were turning City Hall over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several days later, another cultural affairs official, Mondine Harding, emailed Goodrich: \u201cGood morning Paul. I am reaching out to you again regarding the above artwork that was on the wall in your City Hall office. When you cleaned out your office that Saturday, the City Hall engineers and Cultural Center staff came to retrieve the picture after you left and it was no longer on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two other city officials \u201creached out to you that same day to inquire about you checking your belongings for it but I don\u2019t recall the outcome,\u201d Harding wrote. \u201cPlease advise us ASAP.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Goodrich responded, though earlier he\u2019d told city officials he didn\u2019t have the art, according to copies of emails.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Goodrich says he didn\u2019t take the painting \u2014 which Cass says he had sold to the Chicago Public Library in the 1980s, soon after he created it.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that valuable. City officials estimate the untitled painting is worth between $500 and $1,000.<\/p>\n

But it is city property, though it\u2019s not listed among the roughly 700 items in an inventory of city-owned art objects that range from the stainless steel \u201cBean\u201d in Millennium Park to the numerous paintings in the city\u2019s branch libraries.<\/p>\n

Asked for a list of any missing art, the cultural affairs department says it \u201cdoes not maintain a list of missing artworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodrich told the Sun-Times he planned to visit a personal storage locker to confirm that it isn\u2019t there but that he\u2019s \u201c99.99%\u201d sure it\u2019s not and that it isn\u2019t in his possession.<\/p>\n

Now, he says he checked the locker and that the painting wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Now-former<\/p>\n

Now-former Inspector General Deborah Witzburg, left, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, right, and her one-time chief operating officer, Paul Goodrich, center.<\/p>\n

Sun-Times file photos, LinkedIn<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one at City Hall even said anything to me about this,\u201d says Goodrich, adding he didn\u2019t remember the artwork until reporters sent him a photograph.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognize that painting,\u201d he says. The cultural affairs department \u201casked if I wanted some art, and I said sure. I liked that painting a lot. I chose that. That is a painting that was in my office.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the painting was likely on the wall on his last official Friday at City Hall in 2023 and that, over that weekend, crews went into his office as the change in administration was underway. By that Monday, he says, his walls were painted fresh and the artwork was taken down, with virtually any sign that he\u2019d been there having been \u201csanitized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The missing painting includes images of a red house, a shadowy figure and what looks like a wolf head, all set against a yellowish backdrop and markings that look like scribbles.<\/p>\n

While the location of the painting has been unknown for two years, its disappearance surfaced only now because of an unrelated City Hall inspector general\u2019s investigation. Deborah Witzburg, who recently left that office, determined that a city technology contractor Goodrich had dealings with at City Hall hired his son as a paid intern. The inspector general also questioned whether the Chicago contractor \u2014 EKI-Digital, run by politically connected businessman Robert Blackwell Jr. \u2014 completed all of the work that it invoiced taxpayers for, billing nearly $10 million.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Buried in documents relating to that was a brief mention of the painting.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s office says that, in December 2021, the city-owned artwork painted by Cass \u201cwas moved to the City Hall office of former Chief Operating Officer Paul Goodrich following a request Goodrich submitted to the Chicago Public Art Collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cShortly after Goodrich vacated his space during the mayoral transition, it was discovered the piece was no longer in his former office. In initial outreach, Goodrich told city personnel he did not possess the painting. The city does not possess any concrete evidence to suggest that Goodrich removed the painting from city premises.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing a thorough search of City Hall in August 2023, the departments who oversee the Chicago Public Art Collection were unable to locate the artwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs situations such as this are very uncommon, the Public Art Collection does not keep records of missing artwork. The Chicago Public Art Collection includes nearly 700 works of art kept in over 150 city facilities \u2014 there are no other open inquiries regarding reports of artwork… unaccounted for.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the city\u2019s list of public art below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A painting that\u2019s been in City Hall\u2019s sprawling collection of public art since the 1980s and was last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-717394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}