High school bet its future on paintings worth $4.1 million - then learned their real value

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help Pacific Boychoir Academy. Photo / GoFundMe

The four works of Asian art were supposed to provide financial relief for the small, music education-focused Pacific Boychoir Academy in Oakland, California.

A generous donor gave the school the Chinese paintings in late 2017 and early 2018, which were valued by two independent appraisers to be worth US$2.8 million ($4.1m), the school said.

With the largest donation in its 20-year history, no longer would the private academy be forced to adhere to a tight budget - relying on tuition fees and contributions to maintain operations.

The school was so confident in the appraisals, it took out US$400,000 in loans against the art, school officials say, helping to pay for a new communications director and full-time admissions director.

Their efforts quickly paid dividends: enrollment in the academy, which hosts just 24 students, is expected to nearly double next school year, Janelle Geistlinger, the admissions director, said.

"What this level of a donation had the ability to do for us was give us this long-term sense of stability," she said. "So that we could really see the next 20 years and imagine growing to a larger campus, ways we could grow our programme, just really enabling us to begin to dream and reach for those next steps."

But administrators were hit with devastating news as they explored selling the paintings this year. An auction house in San Francisco specialising in Asian art told them the paintings were duplicates, and thus worth very little - impeding their dreams of expansion, Geistlinger said.

Instead, the school laid off its new communications director and the head of the school, whose responsibilities are now shared among three faculty members, and issued "significant" pay cuts to the majority of its staff.

The school is in "active" discussions with the New York appraisers who provided the false estimates to learn what happened, she said.

Because of the mistake, a presumption of financial abundance has shifted to survival mentality as the community rallies to keep their school afloat for the remainder of the year.

After this small Oakland arts school got a donation of four Chinese paintings, valued at $2.8 million, admin got to work hiring staff and bolstering programs.

But the paintings were fake. Copies. Now the school could be forced to close by graduation.https://t.co/oej3hVEeYI

— Melia Russell (@meliarobin) March 5, 2019

"I think it's one of those kinds of things that just knocks the wind out of you," Geistlinger said. "I took a big breath and looked at what has to be done, and we're not going to give up. The work is too important, the boys count us, the outcomes are so meaningful that we're going to do what we have to do."

Geistlinger said the Pacific Boychoir Academy is not naming the donor, who she says acted in good faith. The school is also not naming the original appraisers. She emphasised that the shortfall they're facing affects only this school year.

Next year, with increased enrollment, the school should be able to meet their expenses independently, she added, pointing to the notable results they had by hiring a communications and full-time admissions director. The academy currently houses students in grades 4-8 and enrollment costs about US$24,000, Geistlinger said. Students take regular academic classes for half the day and spend the remainder of their time doing music theory.

"There is a bright future right there," Geistlinger said. "We just need to get to next year."

Assessing the true value of art can present challenges for appraisers and authenticators, whose strategies for doing so can range widely. A recent New York Times Magazine story discusses how the value of the works of Rembrandt, for example, can hinge on whether its determined that the painting was created solely by the artist himself, or whether he had assistance from other artists in his studio.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Chinese paintings can prevent even more challenges for authentication and appraiser - namely because it's common for artists to pay tribute to masters by replicating their work.

Pacific Boychoir Academy has started an online fundraising campaign to cover its payroll, but it's not enough. https://t.co/ogV8GhHE3i

Tech billionaires: Here's your chance.

— Melia Russell (@meliarobin) March 5, 2019

J.J. Lally, a New York-based Asian art dealer, told the publication "it is extremely difficult to ascertain with real certainty and consensus the attribution of any Chinese painting."

"It certainly is not the first time there's been dispute over a Chinese painting," Lally told the Chronicle. "Sometimes you ask five experts, you get six opinions."

For the Pacific Boychoir Academy, those expert opinions were ultimately the difference between US$2.8m and next to nothing.

The school is now trying to make up that loss through more traditional fundraising efforts, Geistlinger said, and it has raised at least US$62,000 in donations. She could not specify if that included the nearly US$3000 contributed to a GoFundMe drive in the school's name. The school's goal sits at US$270,000, to pay for operating costs for the rest of the year.

Geistlinger added that the school is in the process of receiving three new pieces of art from the same donor, collectively appraised at a value of US$500,000.

"We have verbal confirmation of their value from the appraiser," she said, adding that the school won't take the number at face value. The appraisers for the new art are the same as the original appraisers for the old art.

The school will seek a second opinion on the art's worth, she said.

Possibly a third.