The University of Victoria will return stained-glass panels designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to their original home in Buffalo, New York — which is now a historic landmark.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Mary Jo Hughes, director of UVic’s Legacy Art Galleries. “They’ve done a spectacular job of restoring the house. Now it needs its windows.”
The seven decorative windows and light screens, as Wright called them, were purchased by the university in 1968 at an art auction, “for probably not a heck of a lot,” said Hughes. The exact amount is unknown.
The glass panels were just a few of nearly 400 pieces installed at the Darwin D. Martin Complex in the early 1900s. It was one of the most detailed custom designs by Wright, created for his friend, New York businessman Darwin D. Martin.
The Martin family lost money in the stock market crash, Hughes said, and sold pieces from the home in the 1930s. After Martin’s death, the home was abandoned and repossessed by the city for back taxes.
“For about 30 years, we do not know where the windows were,” Hughes said. The university purchased them along with several others, some of which were sold to start a decorative-arts fund.
Hughes said the seven pieces kept for the university’s collection have been used as teaching tools over the years and exhibited several times.
“But the international public has not been able to really appreciate them most of the time, as they’ve been in a vault,” she said.
For more than a decade, Martin House staff have written UVic every year or so to ask for the glass panels. The home was declared a national landmark in the 1980s, and restoration efforts ramped up in the late 1990s.
“It’s kind of a shock to think of giving up something so precious,” said Hughes, who has received a letter every year for her five years as director.
“Then last year, I thought, it’s time to figure out what to do,” she said. The celebration of Wright’s 150th birthday was coming up, as well as Canada’s.
“I consulted with gallery directors across Canada, and it became clear the windows should be with the house. … It’s an important part of heritage preservation to have pieces together and to see the whole concept of a Frank Lloyd Wright design,” said Hughes, noting Wright was a major influence on prominent Victoria architects Samuel Maclure and John Di Castri.
Hughes said Martin House is not buying the panels back for market value, but will donate $25,000 to an art-preservation fund for the university in return for five decades of stewardship of the pieces, which are “in pristine condition.”
The university will also get a replica window for study.
Mary Roberts, executive director of Martin House, said they were surprised and thrilled to hear UVic would return the panels to their original home.
“We have been looking for missing elements for many decades, and usually get one or two pieces back,” said Roberts, noting seven pieces is an exceptional return. She said they’ve been able to recover about 60 per cent of 394 art-glass panels used in doors, windows, skylights and cabinets. Other items returned to the home include furniture, fixtures and art.
Some were returned by Martin descendants, neighbours and galleries — such as a Tree of Life glass panel from the Grey Art Gallery at New York University.
UVic is the first international organization to return an item, “which I hope inspires others to do the same,” Roberts said, noting many Canadians visit the historic site, which is close to the Ontario border.
Roberts said representatives from Martin House will travel to Victoria this summer for the final local exhibit of the glass panels, “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright,” at the Legacy Downtown at 630 Yates St., which runs July 15 to Sept. 16.
The glass panels will be shipped to Martin House in October and installed soon after for display.
