David Nelson contacted school administration two days into the controversy. The administration requested Nelson to voluntarily withdraw his painting from the exhibition, but he wouldn't decide until the following day. That same day, Chicago Aldermen William Henry and Ernest Jones arrived at the school, accompanied by three uniformed police officers. The aldermen expressed their objections to the painting in front of the cameras and other press. Ignoring the protests of students and school security, the aldermen removed the painting from exhibition and placed it on the floor, facing the wall. Students who had witnessed the removal of the painting hung it back up on the wall.
As several more students and members of the press gathered around the painting, more aldermen arrived and forcibly removed the painting from the exhibition and attempted to take it out of the building, but security stopped them and suggested speaking with the president of the school, Tony Jones.
The aldermen arrived in the Jone's office with two plain clothes police detectives and the painting with a six inch gash in the canvas. Members of the school's and museum's public affairs offices were called in along with higher ranking police officers called in by school security. This meeting lasted two hours, while the school's staff discovered that they had met with Nelson's impostor that day and would not be able to reach the real Nelson for the entire four day dispute.
The aldermen stated to school officials and police that they were carrying out a city resolution to remove the painting, but in actuality the resolution was only a request for the removal. Aldermen then convinced police to "arrest" the painting and removed it from the building.
Source: CAC Censorship Archive