How Lost 1930s-Era Paintings Owned By US Government Were Recovered
The General Services Administration has a program to find misplaced or stolen New Deal-era artwork owned by the US government. According to documents we obtained through the FOIA, the agency recovered three paintings last year.
“Gray Day on the Marshes” by Ralph Nelson.
Photo: General Services Administration
Welcome back to another edition of FOIA Files! One thing I love about the Freedom of Information Act is when an agency releases documents that reveal details about a program I never knew existed. Last summer, I filed a request with the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General for final reports from investigations closed in 2025. Earlier this month, GSA sent me about 100 pages of documents related to a wide range of matters it probed involving waste, fraud and abuse. A handful of pages buried in the cache stood out: the recovery of New Deal-era artwork that was misplaced or stolen. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
This isn’t the first time I stumbled onto the federal government’s quest to recover historical treasures owned by the US. A couple years ago, I obtained inspector general reports from the National Archives and Records Administration and discovered the agency has an Archival Recovery team that hunts for stolen or missing artifacts.