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In the spring of 2018, Yale Law School dean Heather Gerken happily acknowledged the receipt of a donation from the Texas billionaire Harlan Crow to fund the commission of a portrait of Crow’s friend, Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.
In an April 2018 letter to Crow, Gerken thanked Crow for the gift and described Thomas, a 1974 graduate of the law school, as a « trailblazer. »
« We are so pleased to welcome the justice to our outstanding gallery of portraits, » Gerken wrote. « They will always have a place of prominence at Yale Law School. » Five years later, students and faculty members say they’ve never seen it, and certainly not displayed in a place of prominence.
The portrait exists. Yale commissioned the New York City-based artist Jacob Collins to paint it, and Collins told the Washington Free Beacon that, according to his records, the portrait was being framed in March 2019 and that he believes it was delivered to the school shortly thereafter. Yale acknowledged his gift with a letter of thanks.
Neither Gerken nor a spokesman for the law school responded to requests for comment about the portrait’s whereabouts.
« It was completely understood that the paintings would join the other paintings in the pantheon of paintings, » Crow told the Free Beacon.
