6. The City Hall Portrait Collection is One of Its Secret Treasures
The New York Times contends that though the archaeological artifacts got much more air time, “far more valuable treasures are secreted away inside City Hall itself: the city’s little known but extensive collection of 19th-century portraits and other artwork, which is rarely seen by the public that owns it all.” In total there are more than 108 portraits of New York dignitaries by painters like Thomas Sully, Rembrandt Peale, John Trumbull, Charles Wesley Jarvis, and John Vanderlyn.
Through a non-profit he founded, Mayor Bloomberg raised $1.7 million for the restoration and conservation of the collection, but Mayor de Blasio angered many when he began to take down some of the paintings as part of a greater plan to add ethnic diversity to the art collection.