Picture This: Did The Art Institute of Chicago Ever Rent Out Paintings?

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2018

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robert K. Elder would love to decorate the walls in his living room with original paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago. So he was floored when a friend told him that her mom rented two pieces of artwork back in the day. This was hard for Robert to imagine. Like, what would that even look like? Someone strolling onto Michigan Avenue with a rented Monet stuck in his or her backpack? Curious City looked into whether this story has any truth to it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region.
0:06.2	And investigate.
0:07.4	Report.
0:08.0	Explore.
0:08.9	From W.B.E.Z.
0:13.8	Cindy Fletcher grew up in Naperville in the 1950s.
0:17.3	And one day, she remembers her mom brought home these mysterious pieces of art.
0:21.5	She hung one in the dining room.
0:23.2	It showed this big guy sitting in a chair.
0:25.9	I didn't care for them.
0:27.1	They were sort of dark and bleak.
0:29.0	It was just such an odd thing that she would do.
0:32.1	So Cindy says her dad finally asked her mom, where did these come from?
0:36.1	She said they came from the Art Institute.
0:38.5	Yeah, her mom told the family these new pieces of art came from Chicago's renowned Art Institute Museum.
0:45.0	And she'd rented them.
0:46.7	It's a claim Cindy never doubted.
0:48.8	I just took it at face value.
0:50.6	She never showed me any documents.
0:52.0	Why would she?
0:52.6	I've just a kid.
0:53.7	Last year, Cindy shared this story with her friend Rob. And Rob, in turn, contacted us, asking,
	...

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