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Rebecca Alty, minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, speaks at the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Annual General Assembly in Winnipeg on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Audit finds federal department couldn't account for 132 Indigenous artworks

By The Canadian Press

Published 10:38 PDT, Mon October 27, 2025

Last Updated: 2:20 PDT, Mon October 27, 2025

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The federal government has lost track of more than 130 Indigenous artworks and risks losing the trust of Indigenous artists if it doesn't take better care of its collection, an internal audit found last year.

The report, dated November 2024, was posted earlier this month on the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada website. It tracked the operations of the department's Indigenous Art Centre from April 2019 to August 2024.

The audit noted the Indigenous Art Centre's collection — first established by the federal government in 1965 to protect, preserve and promote Indigenous art — consists of more than 5,000 artworks from First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists.

The collection, which is valued at roughly $14.4 million, includes works from such renowned artists as Christi Belcourt, Elisapee Ishulutaq, Kent Monkman and Norval Morrisseau. The audit does not say how much the mislaid artworks are worth.

Lori Beavis is co-chair of the Indigenous Curatorial Collective and executive director of Daphne, a Montreal-based non-profit that supports Indigenous artists. She called the audit's results both "disturbing and not hugely surprising" and said the federal government should come clean on which artworks it mislaid.

She said she has heard rumblings in the art world about how the Indigenous Arts Centre has tried to locate missing works in the past.

"There's always sort of a sense of fun that came through the stories about that — searching high and low and all that sort of thing," Beavis said.

"You can sort of understand how they can lose track (of artworks) and I don't think it's necessarily a new thing either."

The Canadian Press has reached out to Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty's office for comment but has not yet received a statement.

The Indigenous Art Centre began relocating its collection in 2022 to temporary private sector storage facilities while the former storage site was undergoing renovations.

The audit said the collection faced "key risks" to its security during and after the relocation and warned of an "increased risk of theft and security breaches."

"Mishandling of culturally important art pieces held within the collection poses a reputational risk and could adversely impact the department’s relationship with Indigenous stakeholders," the audit said.

The audit said the 132 mislaid artworks include an unspecified number of pieces that haven't been found even though the department has a list of their last known locations.

"Up to date policy instruments with clear roles and responsibilities for implementing requirements for the protection, preservation, and promotion of the collection are essential for ensuring that the department fulfils its mandate to oversee the development and maintenance of Indigenous art held in its care," the audit says.

"Failing to fulfil key requirements can erode trust bestowed upon it by Indigenous artists and also negatively impact the collection’s designated status through the (Canadian Heritage) Movable Cultural Property Program."

The audit report called on the department to keep better records and improve monitoring and oversight processes for employees tasked with managing the collection.

Beavis said having one's work acquired for the Indigenous Art Centre is a vote of confidence and it's disheartening to think that some works may be permanently lost.

"It's known worldwide," she said. "It's a collection that's unique to Canada."

– Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press