Not everyone appreciates the art that’s donated for their benefit. At least, so it would seem with students in Indianapolis’s public schools, according to the Chicago Tribune, many of them have stabbed the $4 million worth of art with pencils:

The Indianapolis Star reports that donated paintings by T.C. Steele, William Forsyth and other members of the Hoosier Group of impressionist painters hang with little fanfare at public schools in the city. Indianapolis Public Schools house paintings and artwork from many Indiana artists, and the district’s collection has been estimated to be worth $4 million. The report did not say who evaluated the works of art.

Schools might not be the safest place for such valuable paintings and at least a few have needed to be repaired due to pencil stabbings, the report said.

[…] Under the terms of the donations, most of the paintings must remain at the schools to which they were originally given, IPS officials say. The board is not considering selling any of the artwork, the newspaper reported. Security devices are attached to all the paintings, and the school buildings have alarms. Some paintings are on permanent loan to the Indiana State Museum, and others have been displayed in the Statehouse.

The school collection ranks among the world’s best collections of work by the Hoosier Group and Brown County Art Colony, said Harriet Warkel, curator of pre-1945 American art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Indianapolis Schools House Art Worth $4 Million (Chicago Tribune)