advisory panel had been consulted nor provided proposed sketches. While the work was ultimately completed, Siegel dropped out of the local arts scene for a decade. The controversy escalated into a lawsuit and debate over control of public art, and left Siegel burnt out and embittered. The Siegel frescoes were part of a program established in 1978 to provide commissions to Illinois artists. The other artwork commissioned for the building proved less controversial. Sandra Jorgensen painted oil on canvas murals for the Children's Storytelling Room representing views of a bird flying in a garden with a pool with the Chicago skyline in the distance. The auditorium has six large canvases by Nicholas Africano depicting the character Petrushka in the Igor Stravinsky ballet. Book removal In 2001, local residents noticed books being removed from the Sulzer branch; community activists claimed as many as 35,000 books vanished. When Alderman Schulter went to investigate, he was denied entry, as was a Chicago Sun-Times photographer. According to Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey, the alderman was not ordered to leave the library and the book removal was part of standard weeding procedure for older, damaged or less popular books, which a former librarian had neglected to follow. At the time, rumors also circulated that Sulzer Library might be downgraded from a regional library. Then-director Leah Steele had also refused to accept a position at the Harold Washington Library, and was subsequently fired. As a result of the lawsuit and media exposure, Commissioner Dempsey agreed to form a citizen advisory committee, promised not to remove Sulzer's regional status, and guaranteed continuing Sulzer's Media Center. References External links Conrad Sulzer Regional Library Chicago Public Library homepage Library buildings completed in 1985 Public libraries in Chicago New Classical architecture