Here’s a couple of the larger, more interesting recent examinations of the Long Beach Museum of Art audit which came out Monday–both of which get more intriguing when they stop talking numbers, and start talking about missing art.

Los Angeles Times reporter Deborah Schoch apparently talked to Museum Director Ron Nelson on Wednesday, and found out how much those missing paintings by Russian expressionist Alexej Jawlensky might be worth on today’s market:

“The abstract portraits, part of the museum’s Wichner Collection, were together appraised at $150,000 in 1999 but are likely worth at least $200,000 to $300,000 apiece today,” Schoch writes. “They appear to have gone missing after a 2000 tour to Paris, Nelson said.”

Later on, Schoch explains the significance of the two missing oil paintings: “The missing Jawlenskys are from the museum’s highly valued collection of 35 paintings by the Russian artist, acquired in 1979 with a gift of 61 European Modernist works from the estate of attorney Milton Wichner. Although the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena has a larger Jawlensky holding — 148 pieces — the Long Beach donation was a coup, with the Jawlensky works as the highlight.”

Press-Telegram reporter Joe Stevens also covered the audit in a story Wednesday. He updates Gazette Newspapers Executive Editor Harry Saltzgaver’s assertion in a story last week that “In the last update of the [museum's] inventory, more than 100 pieces were listed as ‘not viewed,’ meaning they had been lost or destroyed.”

Stevens references City Auditor Laura Doud’s second audit of the museum–due in July–which will take inventory of the museum’s 3,000 piece collection, and he writes this:

“While Doud refused to comment on the second audit, the museum’s executive director, Ron Nelson, confirmed that much of the museum’s collection, including Alexej Jawlensky’s Number 7 and Number 27, is missing.”

Wowee–”much of the museum’s collection”? That’s interesting, and it sounds like more than the 100 pieces which Saltzgaver mentioned. Next month’s audit should be a real page-turner.

Tags: Alexej Jawlensky, California, Deborah Schoch, Gazette Newspapers, Harry Saltzgaver, Joe Stevens, Long Beach, Long Beach Museum of Art Audit, Los Angeles Times, Milton Wichner, missing Jawlenskys, press telegram, Ron Nelson, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas