BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) -- FOX25 broke new information Friday surrounding the disappearance of two valuable art works at the Boston Public Library and Mayor Marty Walsh is calling for accountability. FOX25's Sharman Sacchetti did some digging and found out how much money taxpayers pump into the library, and it turns that you're paying for it whether you live in the city or not.
Questions were swirling about accountability and management at the Boston Public Library after news broke that two expensive pieces of art by Rembrandt and Albrecht Dürer were missing. Mayor Marty Walsh, for one, expressed concern about accountability for the library, saying, "Certainly there is some accountability that's a major concern."
He went on to say, "First thing I want to know is how does over $600,000 dollars of valuables go missing or to be stolen? That's the first question."
So Sacchetti took a closer look at the taxpayer funded salaries of top employees, and how much the state and the city pays every year and found that the president, Amy Ryan, made more than $180,000 last year. And Michael Colford, director of library services, made $131,000 while the finance manager made $118,000.
Finally Susan Glover, the keeper of special collections, who was put on leave after the art was found to be missing, made almost $107,000.
Walsh tells FOX25 that this year the city has has pumped $33 million into the library and next year the proposed cost is $34 million. That is even more than the city's snow budget, which was $18.5 million this year and $22 million is proposed for next.
Will it continue? Walsh says he wants answers.
"I'm not going to cut back on the funding, but I'm certainly going to look at what's going on at the management, look at the procedures in place," he said.
Sacchetti also learned that even if you don't live in Boston, you help fund the library. A spokeswoman for the library told Sacchetti that the state kicks in $3.2 million, and the library gets another $5.5 million from donations and revenue.
She also sent old statements from the president and chairman of the library from earlier this week, and said the library couldn't comment on the rest of this case because of the ongoing investigation.
Next week the mayor is set to meet with both the president and chairman. He wants to know moving forward, how they plan to keep track of their 200,000 works of art.
