{"id":2262,"date":"2009-12-14T22:43:24","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T02:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nearbycafe.com\/artandphoto\/photocritic\/?p=2262"},"modified":"2009-12-14T22:43:24","modified_gmt":"2009-12-15T02:43:24","slug":"polaroid-collection-update-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nearbycafe.com\/artandphoto\/photocritic\/2009\/12\/14\/polaroid-collection-update-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Polaroid Collection: Update 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where Are the Missing 8000 Pieces from the Polaroid Collection? (continued)<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I pointed out in <\/span><\/em>my previous post<\/a><\/span><\/em>, somehow, between early 2003 and early 2009, one-third of the Polaroid Collection, some 6000-8000 items, went astray. That\u2019s more than a minor shortfall, or a glitch in the inventory process.\u00a0Where are they?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Polaroid<\/a>

Polaroid Big Shot, 1971-73<\/p><\/div>\n

A few partial answers propose themselves:<\/p>\n

I have it on good authority that, upon the dissolution of the original Polaroid Corporation, assorted executives ended up (inadvertently, I\u2019m sure) packing the original prints from the collection that decorated their office walls in with their personal effects and papers and taking them home. That\u2019s to be expected, if not endorsed, and it surely accounts for some of the \u201cshrinkage\u201d the collection underwent.<\/p>\n

Amplifying that scenario, aggravating the situation, and perhaps explaining the fate of some more of the disappeared works, the outcome of the initial 2002 bankruptcy proceeding had stiffed a considerable number of ex-employees, all at once. \u201cThe company has had sweeping layoffs and has discontinued some severance payments. And three days before its filing, it terminated retiree health benefits,\u201d according to Kris Frieswick\u2019s January 1, 2003\u00a0summary for\u00a0CFO Magazine<\/em>,\u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s Wrong with This Picture? Polaroid\u2019s passage through Chapter 11 exposes how bankruptcy can give debtors too much power.\u201d<\/a> A large cohort of disgruntled, pink-slipped personnel, abruptly stripped of severance pay, retirement benefits, and other protections, might well decide to augment their radically slimmed termination packages with a few choice pieces of art each as supplementary compensation.<\/p>\n

\"230px-Polaroid_logo.svg\"<\/a>But 6000-8000 pieces? That\u2019s not just some upper-echelon employees walking off with a few souvenirs from the offices. Nor is it middle-management and staff voting themselves an informal Christmas bonus. That\u2019s wholesale looting. Keep in mind that the Polaroid Collection wasn\u2019t just strewn around headquarters in open boxes, free for the taking. It was housed (so we have been told) in a secure, state-of-the-art facility in Waltham, MA, under the supervision of curator Barbara Hitchcock. (That building, and the parcel of land on which it sits, has since been sold<\/a>, with the future undetermined for something else at the site. The collection is presently in storage in Somerville, MA, with Hitchcock an independent consultant thereto.)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s now take a few steps back, to sketch a timeline of Polaroid\u2019s accounting for and inventory of the collection:<\/p>\n