New-York tribune., 1920-01-31
$l,OOO,OOO in
Art Treasures
Lost i'm Fire
Statues and Paintings by
Leading American Artists
Consumed i'm Blaze That
Wrecks ) 9Th ST. Structure

More than 81 900 900 worth of statues.
paintings and art treasures by the fore
most living American artists were
burned yesterday afternoon in fire
which destroyed the Fifty-eighth Street
Annex of the American Federation of
Fine Arts Building, 215 West Fifty
seventh Street. OF the total damage,
which is said to exceed 81 500, 900, only
that done to the building is covered
by insurance, and the loss of the art
works which it contained will be borne
for the most part by the artists by
whom they were executed and to whom
they belonged
Three iiremen and an electrician at
work in the basement were slightly in
jured i'll the fire, which swept through
the three galleries of the annex and
threatened the main building where
300 students of the Art Students
League were at work. The students
and two models who were posing for
them filed out of the building in per-
feet order as soon as they were in
formed Of the fire by one OF the in
structors
Though there was no panic the mod
els, who were posing in the nude, did
wrapped themselves in rugs, overcoats
or whatever they first laid their hands
on and thus left the building.
The annex, which was made up Of
three large glass-roofed galleries, ex-
tending from the main building on
Fifty seventh Street through to Fifty
eighth Street, had been rented by the
Architectural League of New York for
It's thirty annual exhibition, SEIZED
uled TO open February /.
Paintings, statues, mural decorations,
vases and batlks, collected from all
parts OF the United States and Canada,
had been brought to the galleries and
arranged for the opening
Painters and decorators were still at
work when, at 9 SO O'Clock, Russell +.
White noticed a flash in the electric
panel board in the central gallery.
Flames spread rapidly to the burlap
decorations OF the room. Mr. White
notified those in the main building and
turned in an alarm.
Electrician Fights Blaze
Meanwhile, William Seyfried, an cleo
triclan, Of $50 Seventh Avenue. Brook
lyn, running up from the basement,
where he was completing the wiring for
the exhibit, tried desperately TO extin-
gulsh the blaze with his hands
BY the time that Engine Company
% in charge OF Captain Thomas
Murphy, reached the building from the
fire house. which is Just across Fifty
eighth Street from the Annex, the
flames had swept through the central
gallery. and burst out in the Wander
bilt gallery on the Fifty eighth Street
side. second and third alarm were
at once turned in and were responded
to by other fire companies and FIRE
Chlef John kenlon, who took charge
Patrick J. Reardon, of Engine Com
pany %, James B. Lawler, of Engine
Company 80, and Harry Ness, of Hook
and Ladder Company i. were injured
slightly by falling bricks and glass.
when the Fifty eighth Street wal Of
the Vanderbilt gallery fell. Reardon
and Lawler were attended by Dr. Harry
Archer of the Fire Department, and
returned to duty. Ness, whose n
Jurles were someYhat more severe,
was taken to the United States Health
Hospital in Chief Kenlon's automo-
bile
1920 o'clock. the fire had been
e ished. but not until it had com
plc destroyed the Vanderbilt or
North Gallery, the Central Gallery,
and all the works of art, representing
years of effort by such Representative
sculptors and painters as Edwla
Blashfeld, John s. Sargent, Isidore
Konti and Troy Kinney.
Nothing that was in these two gal
leries remains By queer twist II
fate, the only part of the exhibition
which was saved, that in the South
Gallery, is the least valuable and the
easiest to replace. 1t consists Of
photographs and models of buildings.
designed by members Of the Architec-
tural League.
Horses Led to Safety
The smoke from the fire threatened
to fill the Central Park Riding
Academy on Seventh Avenue. and 1870
frightened horses were led from their
stalls by employees and volunteers
from the crowd. and taken to other
stables in the neighborhood While
the blaze was at it's height the oc-
cupants of The Osborn, the apart
ment house on the corner Of Fifty
seventh Street and Seventh Avenue.
adjoining the Fine Arts Building. were
required to leave their apartments.
Officials of the Architectural League