Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum image:34917:0::0

At this point the auditors do not know if the items are misplaced, missing or were stolen due in part to poor record keeping. But it seems as if it may be a bit of all the above.

An audit of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum located in Simi Valley, CA was initiated by the National Archives after allegations of theft by a former employee were made.

As reported in the Los Angeles Times.

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."

The results of the audit found that more than 80,000 artifacts from the Reagan era out of an estimated 100,000 are unaccounted for at this time and

"may have experienced loss or pilferage the scope of which will likely never be known."

Auditors found artworks just stacked on top of each other haphazardly, sculptures and vases lying unprotected on their sides in open and unprotected shelves in an area that is prone to earthquakes.

Also items that were listed as being on display according to their records were found to have been taken off of exhibit, in some cases years ago.

Documents of the artifacts that had been checked out were never filed and were just placed in stacks upon stacks lying about. Supposedly they will be put into a computer system so they will be able to better track the artifacts.

National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said the agency welcomed the audit and was taking its findings very seriously. Part of the problem, she said, is that presidential libraries originally did not have the same strict preservation guidelines used by most museums. That has been corrected, she said, but funding for the libraries is still an issue.

The above is just about the most inane statement I have read in quite awhile. The problem has not been corrected if they have no idea where the artifacts went and are at this time still unaccounted for.

Here are a few examples of the many gifts given to President Reagan during his term in office. Do the caretakers even know where they are located? Sculpture entitled Power of Life, crafted of semi-precious stones, jasper, jade, lapis lazuli, and malachite created by Evgueny E. Vasiliev. Presented by M. Gorbachev during the U.S. - USSR Summit, December 9, 1987
Bronze bust by Robert Berks. Gift of Arnold and Maria Schwarzenegger
"Fancy Footwork" by Dave Hodges. Gift of the Artist

Also as an aside if you would like to volunteer at the museum they have a volunteer application online and also an internship application as it seems they could really us some help.

No word as to weather the other 11 presidential libraries will be audited or not but it would probably be a good idea as they are all said to be understaffed and struggling to keep track of their artifacts as well. If they can't handle these items I'm sure plenty of museums would love to take these items out of their inefficient hands.