Some sketches and paintings by famed Virgin Islands-born impressionist Camille Pissarro have been on display at the Governor’s Office in Christiansted since hurricanes Irma and Maria, according to Gov. Kenneth E. Mapp.
Government House on St. Thomas lost a portion of its roof during Hurricane Irma. Since that time, furnishings and other government- owned property has been inventoried, removed and stored at other government owned or controlled facilities.
The Pissarro artwork has been on display in Government House on St. Croix since early last summer. The two oil paintings and three sketches by Pissarro were delivered to Christiansted, where they can be displayed securely until repairs are completed on Government House on St. Thomas.
The governor said that many people have had the opportunity to see the artwork since it has been on St. Croix including governor-elect Albert Bryan, who was shown the art by Gov. Mapp on a recent visit to the Christiansted office.
The following pieces comprise Government House’s Pissarro collection:
• “Study of Two Young Women”- pencil on paper
• “St. Thomas” – pencil on paper
• “Figure in a Forest” – pencil on paper
• “Soleil Couchant a Ergny” – oil on canvas
• “Landscape at Night” – oil on anvas
Mapp noted that no government artwork had ever been in his personal possession. “The pieces have been and remain under the protection and in the custody of the Virgin Islands Government,” he said.
Government House | No. 21-22 Kongens Gade | 774-0001 | www.vi.gov
The St. Croix Avis put an opinion piece yesterday as a headline. In yesterday’s newspaper Avis, owner and editor Rena Brodhurst, who has been a Mapp detractor posted a headline written by her daughter, Britney Knight. The “editorial” describes the Plaskett and Bryan version of the denial of FEMA 100% reimbursement. Nowhere does it ask for FEMA’s reasoning. Nowhere does it mention Mapp’s position or any attempt to get Government House’s position. Nowhere is there any investigation as to the timeline of the 100% reimbursement which ended on April 30, the historical nature of its granting in other jurisdictions, or the initial denials of the 50/50 rebuild versus repair assessment from the Army Corp. Moreover, Knight does not state that the new administration is still in the 90/10 reimbursement period with FEMA.
The campaign to malign Mapp continues. A simultaneous campaign to provide the new governor-elect with excuses at the startline is afoot. This is why Avis sales are slumping. And the Daily News is not much better, with editorials openly slanted to the previous DeJongh administration and to his former Commissioner of Labor. But editorial pieces must not masquesrade as news pieces. The press is the fourth estate and the keeper of democracy. This has to stop.