Ohio Attorney General’s Office
Charitable Law Section Case # 114140:
Enforce Libbey’s Will and Protect Toledo’s Art
Index to supporting documents for the Toledo Museum of Art Request for Review by the Ohio Attorney General Charitable Law Section to:
Enforce Libbey’s Will and Protect Toledo’s Art
We object to leadership failing to maintain and take care of our museum in order to keep it open for the public, gutting our museum, removing our art from the walls and sending our treasures away for years — no longer displaying the art in the museum as per the Libbey will, and putting the paintings at great risk. We object to renovation plans showing most of the paintings not on display but replaced with inferior art. We object to a renovation that decreases, not adds to, gallery space. We object to the reckless stewardship of renting our masterworks for the money and shipping them all over the world, in a highly unstable world, risking our cultural heritage, a risk calculated by leadership using a quantified risk formula recognizing the extreme inherent risk of loaning each and every painting yet putting 125 of our best paintings at risk multiple times over multiple years. When our paintings are safest hung on the walls of the Toledo Museum of Art, where they were meant to be, as per Libbey’s will.
As it is our valuable and precious cultural heritage given to us by the Libbeys, we object to our paintings being used as financial instruments and rented out for the money, and we object to our paintings being sold for the money, and we object to the money going into a separate fund, not back into the Libbey funds.
We object to the repurposing of the Glass Pavilion, built in 2006 to display the world-renowned glass collection in Toledo.
We object to a brand new leadership coming in to our museum and transforming it from the inside out. The management, having an extremely high turnover, is two and a half times larger than it was 10 years ago, and the additions to management are simply bloated management. So many more employees making large salaries, then they fired the guards, the biggest group of employees, and Toledoans.
The renovation makes it smaller, not larger. Gallery space is made into a lounge. The Glass Pavilion is no longer for the display of glass. Over 2,000 glass artworks were removed from display in 2023 and put in storage.
Only a select 2-mile radius in Toledo is served at the detriment of all other people in Toledo and the Toledo area, who should not be discriminated against. We object to the museum not bringing the entire public back after the pandemic. Attendance never recovered, while other museums jumped back within a couple years.
Edward Drummond Libbey Will
…all paintings, pictures and other works of art by it or them acquired by expenditures from said income, shall at all times be properly and appropriately housed in one or more rooms of The Toledo Museum of Art in said City of Toledo, each of which rooms shall at all times be designated and plainly marked “The Edward Drummond Libbey Gallery”; each and every of said painting, other pictures and works of art shall at all times be plainly marked “Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey”, and shall be kept adequately insured against loss from fire, theft and other causes…
Florence Scott Libbey Will
…in the purchase of paintings, statuary, furniture and other works of art, each of which, when so acquired, shall have designated thereon, or near thereto, the following words: “Florence Scott Libby Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott”, and shall be permanently installed in one or more rooms of the building or buildings of said Museum of Art, each of which shall be designated and known as the “Maurice A. Scott Memorial Gallery”…
International Touring of Major Collection Paintings (2025–2027)
masterworks shipped overseas for years:
109 paintings have been identified so far that are included in the museum’s major, multi-year international touring exhibitions that began in 2025. Of these, 75 were acquired through the Libbeys.
The Libbey Endowment exists to acquire works of art for the Toledo Museum of Art, where they are to be exhibited for the benefit of the people of Toledo. The Museum has committed an unprecedented number of these works to extended international touring exhibitions.
We respectfully ask the Attorney General to determine whether the scale and duration of these loans are consistent with the museum’s fiduciary obligations, donor intent, and public charitable mission and the charitable purposes established by Edward Drummond Libbey.
List of shows discovered so far, through deep google searches, none have been publicized locally:
Impressionist through 20th Century paintings: 57-60 paintings
- Aukland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand June 6- September 28, 2025
- Museo Santa Caterina, Treviso, Italy Nov 15, 2025 – May 10, 2026
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia July 11 – Nov 8, 2026
- Fubon Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan December 12, 2026 – April 13, 2027
Old Master paintings: ~54-56 paintings
- The Hyundai Seoul, Seoul, South Korea March 21 – July 4, 2026
- Fubon Art Museum, Taipei, Taiwan July 18 – October 19, 2026
Toledo Museum of Art Collections Policy on loans: here and here
RISK
This chart illustrates that the museum is fully aware of the probable damage to the artwork when it is loaned. Value degradation is inherent in loans; restoration costs are factored in, as is value recaptured from restoration. This chart presented by Adam Levine at Christies is purely illustrative, and shows that for four artworks valued at $14,000,000 total, the financial risk of the loan is $1,950,000 in degradation and restoration costs, but that’s the cost of 80,000 people seeing the work, so he seems to legitimize damage to the paintings for the loans.
Using Adam Levine’s numbers, multiply it by 30 and you can see the quantified risk they are putting on our cultural heritage – $58,500,000. Yet that is based on the value of 120 the paintings being $420,000,000. The value of the 120 (or more) paintings they have lent is more like $2,000,000,000, as the Impressionist to 20th Century collection alone has been valued at $1,000,000,000 euro in the Italian press, which is around what can be estimated using the recent sales of the three Impressionist paintings as solid evidence of the collection’s worth.
Is good stewardship putting the museum’s best paintings at risk all at once, shipping and handling the paintings multiple times in multiple conditions all over the world for years, considering the calculated risks:
- the expected physical risks of repeated packing, shipping, unpacking, and installation;
- the environmental conditions at each venue;
- the cumulative effect of multiple international trips over several years;
Did the Board review and approve of these risks?
Did they quantify:
- the public’s ability to experience the artworks in Toledo,
- donor intent,
- the cultural significance of the collection to the community,
- or the cumulative effect of many major works being unavailable for years,
- or that Libbey’s will states that the artwork is to be on the walls of the Toledo Museum of Art, and that the museum is to be maintained for the display of art to the people of Toledo.
The shows were not announced to the public by the Toledo Museum of Art – no press release was issued by TMA for this unprecedented departure from their mission, which is to show art to Toledoans, as per Libbey’s will.
I found out through an anonymous tip.
I asked the museum for a complete list of the paintings, writing to the museum office secretary, Sandhya Holston. My email was answered by Adam Levine who stated that he would not give me the list because “sharing the list, I fear, would just be used to sensationalize your position that we are putting masterworks at risk”. See Adam Levine’s long email to me below, on page 26 of the attached document, Efforts and Responses.
A recent blog post discussing the shows – TMA’s Fast-following at the detriment of Toledoans
Fiscal year 2024 ending June 30, 2025 $3M spike in Facility Fees, is artwork being rented as if it is a rentable facility?
In a November 2025 presentation at Christie’s on museum lending, Director Adam Levine described the Museum’s mission as ‘conveniently broad and innocuous: to integrate art into the lives of people.’ He also discussed a framework for evaluating loan risk. These remarks provide context for the Museum’s philosophy regarding lending and institutional decision-making. We respectfully request that the Attorney General review whether the Board’s implementation of that philosophy in connection with the Museum’s current international touring program is consistent with its fiduciary duties and charitable obligations to the people of Toledo.
REGARDING GALLERY CLOSURES
Timelines and Leadership Statements
RENOVATION AND REINSTALLATION PLANS
[adding to this section]
Losing our large temporary exhibition space: Ward Canaday and the Relection Gallery
What we had and what they are doing:
Gallery 35, the long-time gallery for the Impressionist paintings, is being renovated to display the museum’s highlights and named for Robin and Pat Stranahan, in defiance of the founder’s will that states that a gallery displaying artwork gifted by Edward Drummond Libbey shall be called The Edward Drummond Libbey Gallery.
Previous Renovations [work in progress to be assembled]
FINANCIAL RECORDS
Link to Toledo Museum of Art IRS Form 990 filings on propublica.org
Independent Contractors 2020-2025
note: 25 independent contractors paid more than $100,000 in 2025, totaling somewhere between $8,344,687 and $12,932,440 (as only the top five highest paid independent contractors are itemized.) Compare to previous years.
Independent Contractors 2011-2019
note $605,020 payment to Air Force One for HVAC replacement controls in 2019. Note payments to Air Force One in subsequent years, shown above.
Collection Metrics
historic data collected from 990s showing annual dollar amounts of new acquisitions, deaccessions, approximate annual number of artworks, and a June 11, 2026 screenshot of emusuem stats
Program Services Accomplishments 2020-2025
Program Services Accomplishments 2013–2019
Program Services Accomplishments 2007-2013
Home – COVE _ Center of Visual Expertise
Sandhya Holston
COVE Administrator and Senior Office Administrator and Board Liaison, former travel agent
Center of Visual Expertise in Form 990, directors and program fee COVE in 990 etc. These pages also show other Program Service Revenue, including the
Travel expenses snapshot 2005 – 2025
Travel expenses have risen dramatically since 2005 ($72,523 to $850,405) (click on headline to see details in surveyed 990s) while attendance at the Toledo Museum of Art dropped 66% since before Covid. (see chart below, Public Access section)
TMA Form 990 Statement of Functional Expenses pages
showing cost and allocation trend of employee compensation, salaries and wages, selected years between 2005–2025. These pages also show some data on travel, art purchases, repairs & maintenance, shipping & postage.
Highest-Compensated-Employees-2017-2025
Showing increase from four officers costing $834,540 in fiscal year 2017 to ten officers costing $1,923,270 in fy 2024. Note that the dollar amount reported on fy 2023 and fy 2024 for Highest Compensated Employees does not correspond to the entries on Part IX, line 5A, total compensation of officers, directors and key employees. Note particular dramatic increases in certain salaries, such as for Patricia O’Toole, a financial officer. Note the 2024 office of Director of Finance held by Mark Goetz, an out-of-town professional hired for one year only, given this title, showing here he was paid $107,615 for 6 months in fiscal year 2024, leaving the office in December 2024 and retiring. Note the revolving door of the Development Office — Todd Ahrens, Jenny Wensink, Michael Deetsch, none of whom work at the museum anymore. Note the high salary of the Brand Officer, Gary Gonya, a remote-worker who lives in Colorado was paid $195,695 for 3 months service – July, August and September 2024 before he resigned to run his own business in fy 2024.
What were they working on? They didn’t get people back to the museum after the pandemic.
Public access [work in progress to be assembled]
Collection sales [work in progress to be assembled]
Governance
[work in progress]
TMA Symposium, Expanding Horizons July 20–21, 2023, youtube video
Toledo museum in the news in australia
Efforts and Responses
Toledo Museum of Art has lost direction The Blade March 18, 2023 Guest Editorial
Museum requested Corrections to be made to my March 18, 2023 editorial, but none could be made because I wrote the truth. my answers to the Blade:
Loss of the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition in 2014
The TAA show ended after having been an important 97-year long cultural tradition for Toledo and the Toledo artist community; it ended in a dark cloud of corruption that I exposed at the time. Janet Romaker, distinguished Blade journalist, wrote a thorough article about it.
Employee and labor issues
[work in progress to be assembled]
Employees formed a union in 2025, written about in Hyperallergic showing a photo of five of the employees who helped organize it.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, Jennifer McCary, the museum’s chief culture and brand experience officer, said that TMA “respect[s] the democratic process and remain committed to fostering a supportive and collaborative work environment for all employees.”
It is alleged that management then created a such hostile environment for the organizers, that a number of the unionized employees no longer work at the museum.
to add: the firing of the guards after they tried to unionize; they were replaced by a third-party company — https://toledofreepress.com/tma-guards-express-hurt-surprise-at-outsourcing-services/
