Wright Chat

[Roderick Grant]

I don't know that I would go so far as to claim Wolfe a precursor of Fallingwater, but it did seem to be celestial object that had alighted on the edge of a steep cliff, and might have flown off at any moment. It is one of RMS's most brilliant designs, and a tragic loss.

[Modmom1]

from the article David posted: "According to the Times, the crime was never reported because it was assumed that the stolen items weren’t valuable."

Not a detective but in my book suspect # 1 would be the fool who deemed the stolen items not valuable and thwarted an investigation.

Hard to believe LA, with all it's money would allow such a masterpiece as Wolfe to fall in disrepair, let alone be demolished by a developer who wanted another McMansion.

[Roderick Grant]

Mod, you overestimate LA. Real estate development is all that matters here. But Wolfe was not in the City of Los Angeles, it was in Avalon, on Catalina Island, which is County of Los Angeles, and is even more rapacious when it comes to development.

[Reidy]

The part about not knowing the value of the pieces is hard to credit. The theft supposedly happened in 2013. USC came to own the house some time in the 80s (during Harriet's lifetime) and presumably got appraisals for tax purposes. They would have known, any time in that interval, how valuable the pieces are.

[Craig]

Not report because the objects weren't considered valuable?

Wow, why on earth is anyone working in preservation at a University if that's their knowledge of the objects under their care? Does USC routinely store worthless trash in locked warehouses from which anyone can remove whatever they wish?
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