Congresswoman Dina Titus announced today that she and ten other members of Congress have sent a letter to the head of the General Services Administration asking for a response to reports that more than half of the GSA staff responsible for overseeing the nation’s fine arts collection have been laid off.

“We need answers,” Congresswoman Titus said. “Our national art collection is displayed around the country and reflects our rich cultural history. We need to know whether this national treasure is being properly cared for.”

The April 14 letter sent to Stephen Ehikian, Acting Administrator of the GSA, reads, “We are deeply concerned by reports that over half of the Fine Arts Program’s staff, who play a critical role preserving the collection and overseeing its care and preservation, have been put on leave. Furthermore, at least five regional offices, which are mandated to inspect these works every two years, have reportedly closed. The consequences of not having enough staff to take inventory of these works and help ensure that they are preserved properly would be long-lasting.”

The letter asks Ehikian for responses to the following questions:

1. How many employees from GSA’s Fine Arts Program were placed on leave?
2. What is GSA’s plan to ensure that the valuable works in this collection are accounted for and taken care of? How does GSA plan to reassign the duties of the staff who were placed on leave?
3. What is GSA’s plan to ensure that the works displayed at federal buildings across the United States are inspected every two years?

The letter was co-led by Rep. Chellie Pingree and signed by Reps. Hank Johnson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Paul Tonko, Nydia Velazquez, Jerry Nadler, Sydney Dove, James McGovern, Betty McCollum and Seth Magaziner, all of whom are members of the Congressional Arts Caucus.

The letter cited a March 11, 2025, Washington Post article that reported, “The future of a vast collection of public artwork is in doubt as the Trump administration plans to fire workers who preserve and maintain more than 26,000 pieces owned by the U.S. government, including paintings and sculptures by renowned artists, some dating to the 1850s.

Fine arts and historic preservation workers at the General Services Administration told the Washington Post that at least five regional offices were shuttered last week and that more than half of the division’s approximately three dozen staff members were abruptly put on leave pending their terminations.”

Background:

Through its Fine Arts Program, GSA maintains one of the oldest and largest public arts

collections in the United States. The civic artworks in the collection date back to the 1850s and

are displayed in federal buildings and courthouses across the United States. The program helps

preserve historic works of cultural significance, such as Alexander Calder’s 1974 “Flamingo”

which is on display at the C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago. In Las Vegas, the Lloyd

D. George U.S. Courthouse features “Eldorado,” a stunning landscape of the desert by Brent

Thomson commissioned by GSA in 2000, among other works that illustrate Southern Nevada’s

unique beauty.

Another important body of work that GSA’s fine arts program manages is art that was created

under New Deal programs. In 1934, the federal government began loaning or allocating artwork

created under these programs to public agencies and nonprofit institutions across the country.

When GSA was established in 1949, it assumed stewardship responsibility for this artwork.

Today, more than 20,000 New Deal works of art are on long-term loan to museums and other

nonprofit institutions.