Frank Lloyd Wright artifacts from Bartlesville’s Price Tower recovered for future public display

Eleven original artifacts designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Bartlesville’s Price Tower have been recovered and will eventually return to public display.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy announced it acquired the items to prevent them from being permanently lost to private collectors. The purchase is an unusual move for the nonprofit, which rarely buys architectural artifacts.

The pieces were sold without permission in spring 2024 despite being protected under the Conservancy’s preservation easement. The newly recovered artifacts include:

1. The building’s original lobby directory board
2. An armchair
3. Three copper tables
4. Two stools
5. Four embossed copper panels

Barbara Gordon, the Conservancy’s executive director, said the decision to buy the pieces was made to preserve them as part of Price Tower’s history rather than risk a costly legal battle.

“Our top priority was to keep these artifacts together and off the private market,” Gordon said. “Our aim now is to return them to the building that they were designed for: Price Tower.”

The artifacts are currently in museum-quality storage in the Dallas area. While the purchase was made independently of Price Tower’s current ownership, the Conservancy says it is committed to working with the building’s owners to eventually return the pieces to public display in Bartlesville.

Price Tower, completed in 1956, is the only skyscraper ever built by Wright and remains a landmark of modern architecture.