Beginning in 1912 a decision (possibly motivated by the opening of the Art Gallery of Toronto) was made to decentralize the collection by sending out many of the works to Normal Schools across the province. This policy resulted in the eventual and permanent loss of many fine works from the Collection.

Further works were also lost with the closure of the Provincial Museum of Ontario (as the Educational Museum had been renamed) in 1933. At this time the contents of the museum including the remaining works of art were dispersed to a variety of provincial institutions. Among these were the Ontario College of Art and the Archives of Ontario.

It was only in the late 1970s that a serious attempt was made to document what remained of a very scattered collection. Under the Ministry of Government Services, a project was initiated to catalogue the remaining works in its care. This led in 1978 to a broader effort to repatriate and document hundreds of works of art; to trace those dispersed in 1912 and to relocate those which had been stored in various locations in the Legislative Building.

With the repatriation programme came the imposition of intellectual control through the cataloguing, researching and photographing of the recovered works as well as the gradual undertaking of conservation and restoration as funds would allow.

The art collection inventory also grew with the addition of 156 items of historic furniture and furnishings, many of which had been purchased from well-known Toronto furniture makers Jacques & Hay for the former Government House at King and Simcoe streets (1867-1912).

Subsequently moved to the new Lieutenant Governor's residence, Chorley Park, Rosedale in 1915, many of these fine pieces were auctioned off in 1936 when Chorley Park was closed by the government. (A hand-written inventory of the auctioned pieces can be viewed at the Archives: RG 15-22-2.)

Side Chair, [ca. 1865]
Photographer: Sandra Russell
Government of Ontario Art Collection, 100190

Click to see a larger version (84K)
Serving Sideboard, [ca. 1865]
Purchase from Jacques & Hay for
Government House (1867-1912)
Government of Ontario Art Collection, 100190

For the most part, the remaining items are now displayed in various areas of the Legislative Building, predominantly in the Lieutenant Governor's Suite and the Speaker's Apartment.