No consensus on if state should pay off Lincoln artifact loan
November 13, 2018 | In the PressFrom The State Journal-Register (http://www.sj-r.com/news/20181113/no-consensus-on-if-state-should-pay-off-lincoln-artifact-loan)
A two-hour hearing Tuesday on the saga surrounding a hat purportedly owned by Abraham Lincoln failed to produce consensus on whether the state should pay millions to help pay off a debt connected to the hat.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum staffers who testified before the House Tourism Committee said it would be a “tragedy” if the loan isn’t repaid and the Lincoln memorabilia in the Taper collection had to be sold at auction.
Some skeptical lawmakers, however, said there needs to be greater oversight of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation and that the case still hasn’t been made for the state to pay off the remaining $9.2 million owed on the loan to acquire the collection.
“I think we still have questions on how the foundation is going to move forward in paying down the debt,” Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, said after the hearing. “Certainly no plan was presented today.”
He said that “given the questions surrounding not just the history of the hat but the whole operations of the foundation,” it’s a “hard ask” of state government to provide the money to pay off the loan.
Although the loan isn’t due until October, time is of the essence. Foundation executive officer Carla Knorowski said a decision will have to be made by the end of December on whether to proceed with auctioning off additional parts of the collection. Some items not connected to Lincoln or which were duplicated have already been auctioned. She said that even those few items required a lead time of several months for the auction house.
State historian Samuel Wheeler said it would be a “tragedy” if parts of the collection were auctioned. He said not a day goes by when some part of the collection of nearly 1,500 items isn’t on display or used by researchers.
“To break this collection up by sending it to the auction block would be a tragedy,” he said.
Moreover, wealthy collectors who might buy the items at auction may well remove the items from public circulation, he said.
Wheeler testified he is still researching the authenticity of a hat purportedly owned by Lincoln that is at the center of the controversy with the foundation. The value of the hat was put at $6.5 million by one appraiser when the foundation spent $23 million acquiring the Taper collection. Efforts to definitively trace it to Lincoln, including a secret DNA test done by the FBI, have been inconclusive.
The hat isn’t the only part of the collection that is suspect. The authenticity of a clock that allegedly hung in Lincoln’s law office as well as a fan that Mary Todd Lincoln may have taken to Ford’s Theatre are also being scrutinized.
Despite questions about those items, Wheeler called the collection “phenomenal” and said it should stay in Springfield.
Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, said the private foundation needs to be brought under public oversight. She said the foundation’s operations should be subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act, and the foundation’s financial records should be reviewed by the state auditor general.
“For me, this is about transparency,” said Butler who agrees there needs to be more state oversight of the foundation. “What has happened over the last several months is an absolute shame.”
The hearing opened with a Lincoln presenter testifying to the committee, saying he commonly carried notes in his hat, “but that seems to be a contentious issue.”
“There is more to my legacy than just a hat,” he said.
