Where's the Art?

On May 20, junior Alison Berson walked into Drawing and Painting, ready to finish up another addition to her portfolio - a vivid picture of three electric guitars. But when Berson went to pick up her piece, it wasn't there.

"I ended up holding a scrap paper I had used for experimenting with watercolor techniques," said Berson. She searched through her cubby once more, hoping that she had just picked up the wrong piece of paper, but there was nothing else in the cubby "“ no art piece.

"I honestly didn't know what to think," said Berson. "I was mostly confused, thinking I misplaced it or something."

Berson told art teacher Carlos Benedict right away. The two began to look through every cubby in the art room, but to no avail. Art teacher Carl Wenzel helped Berson and Mr. Benedict look for the piece, but after searching the entire art room, nothing was found. At this point, Principal Paul Gasparini was called.

Mr. Benedict continued looking for the piece that day. He asked students and teachers about the piece "hoping someone would spill the beans." At dismissal that day, he watched students leave to see if anyone was carrying a portfolio that might contain the piece.

Berson was panicking. "I thought my piece pretty much was gone, and no one knew how or why."

According to Mr. Benedict, two other pieces came up missing on the same day. Prior to these incidents, sophomore Ash Masrani's piece came up missing the week before April break. "This was the second time I was horrified. In my mind I said, "˜We have a thief.' And the third thought was, "˜This is going to keep happening,'" said Mr. Benedict.

Mr. Benedict said that other students were frightened at the idea of an art-room thief. Many of his students began to store their pieces in the locked art office instead of the unprotected cubbies in the art room.

Meanwhile, Mr. Benedict and Mr. Wenzel were working to generate a list of suspects. The police were contacted to work on finding the thief.

Later, Berson got a message notifying her that her piece had been found along with several others. Berson's mother encouraged her to call Mr. Benedict, who supported the actions taken to retrieve the stolen pieces.

Mr. Benedict called the incident "one of the bizarre-est days of my career."

Berson decided to press charges for stolen property against the accused, who has also been suspended. Currently, the stolen piece is being held as evidence in the accused's trial. Because of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, the name of the accused cannot be released. Mr. Benedict said that the other pieces have been returned. However, the accused quickly folded each piece into fourths so that they could be smuggled out in a backpack. Each stolen piece has creases that will need to be repaired.

Despite the folds in her piece, Berson is happy with the outcome of the incident. "Regardless of what has been done to [my piece], it's earned a deserving spot in my portfolio."