Arts Maebashi, a public museum in Japan’s Gunma prefecture, is struggling to rehabilitate its reputation after its misplacement of six borrowed artworks—including four woodblock prints and two calligraphy works—and its former director’s delays in reporting the incident.
An anonymous curator first discovered the loss of three works on January 6, 2020, during an inventory check, and on February 3, 2020, staff learned of three more missing pieces. These cases were relayed to Fumihiko Sumitomo, the museum’s director at the time. Sumitomo subsequently delayed notifying the artists’ bereaved families, who loaned the works, for nearly six months. The city government of Maebashi convened an investigation committee in December 2020, and, on March 24, published a summary of the committee’s 726-page report. According to the investigation, Sumitomo
