Four oil paintings belonging to Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts have been recovered from a local antique shop where they were for sale.
Saturday, John Concannon, chief lawyer for Cincinnati Public Schools, confirmed the discovery.
''Some things from SCPA were discovered out in a shop,'' he said. ''The police discovered it through a tip.''
No one has named the shop or its owner.
Mr. Concannon said an internal investigation is under way, as well as a police probe.
He said retiring SCPA Principal Rosalyn England is one of the people being questioned.
Others close to the investigations said four paintings were brought to the shop by an SCPA employee who said the art works belonged to her. The employee apparently thought she had been given the paintings by someone with authority to do so.
''That's not how we get rid of (school) board property,'' Mr. Concannon said. ''No employee can decide the district doesn't need this and give it to you.''
Persons familiar with the case said four paintings were recovered from the shop, one was recovered from the seller's home and another from the home of the antique dealer.
If the paintings were relatively valueless, potential disciplinary decisions would be different from steps that would be taken if the paintings were valuable, he said. As far as he knew, they involved ''no particularly great pieces.''
Police involved in the SCPA probe did not return telephone calls last week. Neither Ms. England nor the staff member who reportedly brought the paintings in could be reached.
Mr. Concannon said the recovery of the paintings - sometime in the past year - was not connected to the federal grand jury probe into art that was sold from the district's museum collection.
