Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s acquisition of original interior artifacts from the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has ensured their long-term preservation and planned reintegration into the building’s public experience after unauthorized dispersal in spring 2024. The acquisition, finalized through donor funding and strategic negotiation, includes eleven historically significant pieces, including copper furnishings and architectural components that form part of Wright’s only realized skyscraper. Although the items are currently held in secure storage in Dallas, the Conservancy is in communication with the new building owners to facilitate the return of these architecturally protected elements.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has taken an active custodial role in protecting original design elements of Price Tower by acquiring eleven architect-designed artifacts, marking a significant departure from its usual reliance on legal oversight and advocacy. This approach reflects the organization’s evolving strategy to intervene directly when existing preservation mechanisms fail, particularly when key components of historically protected structures face permanent loss through unauthorized sale.
The eleven items, custom-designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, were removed from Price Tower and sold without approval in spring 2024, despite being under the Conservancy’s long-standing preservation easement. Designed in 1952 and completed in 1956, the 19-story Price Tower is the only skyscraper Wright ever built. The building integrates mixed-use functions and is notable for its vertically cantilevered structure and copper-clad geometric surfaces. The acquired pieces include a copper-panel lobby directory board, an armchair, three copper tables, two stools, and four embossed copper panels, each contributing to the cohesive spatial and material composition of the building’s original interior.
“These items are integral to Wright’s architectural vision for Price Tower,” stated the Conservancy. “We intend for the items to once again become part of the Price Tower experience for visitors.”
The pieces are now in secure, museum-standard art storage in the Dallas area, held under the Conservancy’s custodianship. Barbara Gordon, Executive Director of the Conservancy, emphasized the importance of the acquisition strategy in maintaining the integrity of Wright’s design.
“Our top priority was to keep these artifacts together and off the private market. Our aim now is to return them to the building that they were designed for: Price Tower,” she said. “The purchase allowed us to secure our easement-protected items without the uncertainty and high cost of pursuing further legal action. We’re deeply grateful to the generous donors who made it possible for us to save these unique Wright-designed items.”
The artifacts were sold by the previous owners of Price Tower, Copper Tree, and Green Copper Holdings, operating jointly as Copper Entities. In mid-2024, they began selling interior fixtures to address debts estimated at two million dollars, in breach of preservation conditions and an enforceable clause requiring fixtures to remain with the property.
Legal resolution came in January 2025 when Washington County Judge Russell Vaclaw enforced a May 2023 purchase agreement between Copper Entities and Tulsa-based McFarlin Building Company. The ruling finalized the building’s sale for 1.4 million dollars and required all original fixtures to remain with the structure.
The Conservancy clarified that its acquisition was made independently of the change in ownership. Nonetheless, it remains committed to working with McFarlin Building Company to facilitate the public return of the artifacts when conditions allow.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has held a preservation easement on Price Tower since 1989, allowing it to monitor and enforce protections related to the structure’s architectural features. The building’s significance stems from Wright’s use of a central core structural system and integration of copper and concrete into a high-rise format, an approach that differs from his more common low-rise residential work. Reuniting these original elements with the building reinforces the completeness of its architectural narrative and supports ongoing preservation of Wright’s only realized experiment in vertical urbanism.
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