RICHMOND

Jeffrey Scharf, a lawyer for the city of Fredericksburg in the bankruptcy case, last month questioned the museum's finances, specifically its 2005 tax return, which seemed to show an unaccounted-for $1.6 million gap.

The museum's lawyer, Sandra Robinson, responded this month that that money had gone toward "various fixed assets," but also promised the museum's new accountant would provide a fuller accounting.

In a filing this week with the bankruptcy court in Richmond, accountant William Allen Jones Jr. said he has reviewed canceled checks and the books for the museum in 2005, and there is no financial discrepancy.

Instead, Jones wrote, the money was properly accounted for because it went primarily toward the "fixed asset" of building construction. He said that was consistent with general accounting principles.

"I do not find anything to suggest the $1,653,596.07 in new fixed additions is baseless or inaccurate," Jones wrote.

According to a list of canceled checks Jones attached to his court filing, much of the money went toward costs associated with planning the museum building.

The list includes checks for thousands of dollars to Pei Partnership Architects, a New York firm that designed the museum (and is now a creditor in the bankruptcy case), and to several other design and construction companies.

Scharf, the city's attorney, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

In a court hearing earlier this month, Robinson also promised that Jones would file the museum's tax returns for the years between 2006 and 2011 by the end of January, which she said would let the museum renew its state authority to raise charitable donations.

She said the museum will have a reorganization plan in place by the date of the next hearing, Feb. 29.

Chelyen Davis: 804/343-2245
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com