People misplace things everyday. Car keys, glasses and even homework (like they’ve never heard that one before). But those are just trivial things. So how does a university lose an expensive piece of artwork and then accidentally sell it?

The New York Times reports that when the UC Berkeley took possession of the California School for the Deaf and Blind building in the 1980s, it obtained a rare 22-foot-long wood-carved sculpture, designed for the building in the 1930s by the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance artist Sargent Johnson.

It was originally designed to cover organ pipes at the old California School for the Deaf and Blind in Berkeley, and the natural-world relief was affixed to a wall until 1980, when the school moved. 

Johnson (1888-1967) is considered one of the finest sculptors of the Harlem Renaissance, though he spent most of his life in the Bay Area. He was never able to earn a living purely from his art, but in recent years interest in him has resurged, said Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, an associate professor of American art at the University of Pennsylvania, who is writing a book on him.

But as the building deteriorated, the university removed the sculpture to storage space, where it was considered safer. Then, about 20 years later, Berkeley allegedly lost track of the artwork and eventually labeled it “surplus” property.

In 2009 the university sold the carving for $164.63. The buyer then resold the sculpture, and it now resides at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, in California.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but an expert in African-American art estimated it at more than $1-million, a far cry from the $164.63 the university sold it for.

A Berkeley official said the university regretted its “error of ignorance.” I’d say so. Might think twice before they put anything into storage again.