The website of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation doesn't mince words when it comes to describing the city's art collection. "The sculpture collection in New York City's parks constitutes the greatest outdoor public art museum in the United States," the website says.

There are more than 800 public monuments in the Parks Department's permanent collection. In addition, dozens of temporary works of public art are exhibited every year in what the website calls "New York City's greatest public gallery."

The catalog of subjects and artists in the permanent collection goes on for 84 pages. The list of temporary exhibits is shorter, but still impressive.

The Parks Department also runs an art gallery in the Arsenal at 64th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, currently showing an exhibit of photographs entitled "Tomorrow's World: The New York World's Fairs and Flushing Meadows Corona Park." It will be there through Aug. 27.

The city's "Art & Antiquities" department, as it is called, is directed by Jonathan Kuhn.

One of the permanent monuments under his care is the East Cost Memorial in historic Battery Park. It lists the names of the 4,601 members of the armed forces who died in combat on the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Shockingly, it recently appeared to have been defaced with large scratches.

Kuhn said it was fine.

"I am pleased to report that these are not newly inscribed scratches or defacement, nor cause for alarm," he wrote in an email.  "The lines, which at times are more visible under certain weather and light conditions, are original 'inclusions' in the granite used to build the monument, and have been present since its dedication in May 1963."

He said that in recent decades, the monument has received greater attention and care than it had previously. The American Battle Monuments Commission came to the rescue, aided by the Parks Department's Citywide Monuments Conservation Program. They conserved the monument in 1997 and have conducted annual maintenance, as well as periodic inspections, since then.

With so much art under his wing, in addition to conservation, Kuhn has to figure out where to put things. The sculpture in the city's collection isn't tiny. For instance, there is the
15-foot-tall statue of Abraham de Peyster (1657-1728), an alderman, mayor, member of the king's council and acting governor of New York City.

In the late 19th century, his great-great-great grandson, John Watts de Peyster, commissioned a statue of his ancestor, sitting grandly on a large chair, bewigged and armed with a sword. From 1896 to 1972, the statue lorded it over Bowling Green Park, but then it had to be moved to make way for park and subway renovations. It next went to Hanover Square, but that, too, proved to be only a temporary resting place. In 2003, Hanover Square was redesigned and dedicated to the memory of the British victims of the World Trade Center attacks so de Peyster was booted. For more than a decade, he was not on public display.

This sad state of affairs came to an end on July 8, when he again found a worthy home at Thomas Paine Park in Foley Square. More than two dozen de Peyster descendants attended the rededication ceremony.

Now, Kuhn is fundraising to keep the de Peyster statue looking chill. The brochure for the rededication ceremony plugged the Citywide Monuments Conservation Program, a public-private initiative of New York City Parks. "Founded in 1997, the program provides consistent professional care for the city's vast outdoor collection of art and monuments," the brochure says.

"If you would like to make a contribution to help preserve the Abraham de Peyster statue, please make your check payable to the City Parks Foundation and send it to Art & Antiquities, NYC Parks & Recreation, The Arsenal, Central Park, NY, NY 10065."

As an added incentive, all donations are fully tax deductible.