$125K Artwork Moved To Belleville Mayor's Office, Anger Ensues

BELLEVILLE, NJ — When David Hatch donated his family’s treasured painting to the Belleville Historical Society, there was comfort in knowing it would be on display for the public to enjoy. And that’s why the former Belleville resident – and members of the society – are steamed that the nearly 200-year-old painting is now hanging in the office of the town’s mayor.

Hatch, a Belleville native who moved to Connecticut years ago, says that he found “Landscape of Belleville” in the basement of his family’s home when he was 12.

After his family realized it had serious historical significance, they decided to donate it to the local historical society, which restored it and loaned it to the Belleville Public Library in 1963 for display.

Now, after discovering that the painting has been moved to the office of Mayor Michael Melham, Hatch is demanding that it be returned to the library immediately.

“My father Joseph’s greatest fear was that our painting might someday end up hanging in the office of some politician,” Hatch wrote.

A recent post on the Belleville Watch blog gives more background about the dispute – and why the artwork – last appraised at $125,000 – has been moved.

According to Belleville Watch, in June 2020, the library board of trustees – which counted Melham as its president at the time – voted to loan the painting for display in the mayor’s office until the end of his term. Neither the Belleville Historical Society or Hatch were notified of the board’s action.

When a resident brought up the artwork’s new location at the Feb. 23 town council meeting, Melham said it was hung there partly so that visitors and others who viewed video from the mayor’s office could enjoy it.

Read the full article here.

Reached for comment about the painting, Melham told Patch that it was “yet another manufactured crisis.”

“Meanwhile the township is facing a $5 to $6 million dollar deficit, and some of my council colleagues are trying to ram through a $100,000 software contract under everyone’s nose while the taxpayers are potentially facing another significant tax increase,” Melham said. “Yet, oddly, no outrage from so-called ‘advocates.’”

The mayor added:

“The fact of the matter is that the library board of trustees voted unanimously, by resolution, to ‘loan’ the painting to the mayor’s office until such a time when a more suitable and safer place can be found for it at the library. The township must first repair the damaged roof and leaking windows at the library. The painting is currently safe and insured in Town Hall, where many people have now seen and celebrated it, until the roof and windows can be repaired.”

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