 When Burnside retired in 1984, the new dean of the art department, James Mason, ordered an audit and found that more than 900 artworks were stolen, missing, or sold without authorization, at a loss of almost 4 million dollars.After breaking ground two years prior, the museum opened in October 1993 as a location to house BYU's extensive collection of more than 17,000 pieces of art which, due to a lack of space, had never been able to be displayed permanently.According to a 2004 survey, the museum ranked first in attendance among university campus art museums with 334,774 visitors.