Art News

NYC Seeks to Reclaim Notable Central Park Drawings

NEW YORK (AP).- A noted architect’s 19th-century drawings for features in Central Park and other famous public spaces have resurfaced, and officials want them back from a New Jersey real estate broker who says his late father found them in a trash bin more than half a century ago. The city went to court last month after learning that owner Sam Buckley had placed 86 of the Jacob Wrey Mould drawings with Christie’s auction house for potential sale, while keeping at least 41 more himself, according to the city’s court papers. Christie’s and Buckley have since agreed not to sell the works while settlement talks play out. City officials “expect an amicable resolution,” city lawyer Gerald E. Singleton said in a statement Thursday. As an associate and later chief architect for the city parks