The General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG), in partnership with the GSA Fine Arts Program, recently recovered a Works Progress Administration (WPA) print titled “White Boat” by Blanche Lazell.
Earlier this year, GSA OIG was contacted by a citizen who was trying to find out how to return a potential WPA print found in her father’s estate. Her father was an art teacher for over 26 years in Rhode Island and then an art supervisor in Massachusetts, and he had somehow acquired the print. When her father passed away earlier this year, the citizen tried to sell the print through an art gallery. The art gallery advised the citizen to determine if the print was federal property. The citizen did some research and found that the print was likely created as part of the WPA art program and was therefore federal property.
