Sonoma County helping Sebastopol artist find lost painting

Sebastopol abstract artist Kathleen Thompson is on the hunt for a painting she loaned seven years ago to a friend working at the old Norton Behavioral Health Center on Chanate Road.

She said she’s been consumed with family medical issues since then and hadn’t paid much attention to what had happened to the building, the site of a hospital that’s been closed, occupied by homeless people and then declared a hazard after asbestos was discovered.

“I thought ‘Oh, it’s safe there, I’m not going to worry about it,’ ” Thompson said. ”It’s not something I thought would devolve like that.“

The painting is acrylic, 30-inches-by-40-inches, on wood panel, and would probably cost about $3,500 in a gallery, she said.

The friend she loaned the painting to, an art therapist, has since moved to Colorado and Thompson can’t reach her to ask where it might be. The friend told her it had been on display in the main activity room for a while, but might have later been moved to a storeroom.

Sonoma County staff members have been trying hard to help her in her search, “but apparently you can’t get in there without a hazmat suit.”

Matt Brown, a communications specialist with the Sonoma County Administrator’s Office, released a statement last week, saying: “The Chanate campus has been closed since 2014 and several of the buildings, Including Norton Behavioral Health Center, remain active hazmat sites (no electricity exposed wiring/asbestos, biohazard waste, etc.), requiring entry be strictly prohibited.”

For the past seven years, the Chanate Road property — home of the former community hospital and county offices — has sat mostly vacant after its primary occupant, Sutter Health, relocated to its new hospital site on Mark West Springs Road.

Vandalism, rising maintenance costs and a court battle with neighbors clouded the fate of the campus, now an eyesore where officials have long wanted to build hundreds of new homes to remedy the region’s housing shortage.

On Nov. 9, the center was sold for the fifth time to Eddie Haddad, a longtime Las Vegas real estate broker who offered $15.05 million for the nearly 72-acre property. He has said building plans could include housing, retail storefronts, a hotel and resort, golf course and possibly, a casino.

The sale will be finalized at the county Board of Supervisors’ Dec. 22 meeting.

Brown, the county communications specialist, said in the statement that there is no record of a loan agreement between artist Thompson and the county, yet “staff has been actively working with Ms. Thompson to find out if the painting was removed or moved when the occupants vacated the premises.”

He said in the statement that the county only recently received the photo of the artwork, and it is now being circulated among behavioral health team members, in case they can recall its whereabouts.

“Staff may also consider whether a hazmat specialist could search some Chanate building areas safely,” the statement concluded.

Thompson said the last she heard, the county was considering having members of the Sonoma County Fire Department go in and search for her painting.

“I’m trying to find my property and nobody knows where it is,” a frustrated Thompson said.

This story has been updated with the correct size of the painting.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com.