Mission Inn's missing artifacts hinge on a question nobody settled in 1992
The Raincross Gazette: The removal of two valuable paintings from the Mission Inn on May 20 — William Keith's 1874 "California Alps" and Vasily Vereshchagin's 1900 "Charge Up San Juan Hill" — has opened three legal questions tied to the hotel's sale from outgoing owner Kelly Roberts to the San Manuel Investment Authority, an arm of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation. Roberts' attorney calls the artwork the lawful property of Roberts and her late husband Duane, calls the removal allegations false and defamatory, and warns of legal action against anyone repeating them.
The dispute traces to a 4 a.m. closing on Christmas Eve, 1992, when Duane Roberts bought the Inn through the Historic Mission Inn Corporation. Ralph Megna, the Redevelopment Agency official who drafted the three-party agreement himself at the table, says he wrote language meant to keep the most significant artifacts with the hotel, and that he has seen nothing to negate those restrictions. Walter Parks, a Mission Inn Foundation member with direct knowledge of the deal, says the document didn't cover moveable objects at all — the question was deferred to close on time, with Roberts committing to negotiate the moveable items later. The city never came back to the table.
What makes this hard to resolve quickly is that both accounts come from reputable principals with documentary backing. Megna drafted the agreement and holds the wet-signed original. Parks and former Foundation president Mike Marlatt were in the room for what was and wasn't settled. None of them fully agree. Layered on top is a 1977 National Historic Landmark designation whose reach over moveable objects no party with authority has addressed publicly, and a current purchase agreement whose terms San Manuel has kept confidential.
The two paintings drew the outcry, but they're a fraction of the exposure. A professionally curated 1992 inventory known as the A List runs to dozens of significant items — the Taft Chair, the Goddess Pomona statue, Tiffany glass, the Agua Mansa Bell — and the location of several is now unknown. The Foundation was evicted in a 2024 lease dispute, so any inventory it holds is years stale. As Marlatt put it, the idea that the painting goes back up in a couple of weeks is naive.