Those searching for some of the Harvard University Art Museums’ most important artwork won’t be able to find them in Cambridge for the next year—and some professors say they’re not all that happy about it.

The first-ever international tour of the museums’ Grenville L. Winthrop Collection—part of the largest university art museum holdings in the country—kicked off in Lyon, France last weekend. The show, “A Private Passion,” includes more than 200 paintings, drawings and sculptures by many notable artists, including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh.

Some members of the Harvard community say the tour, originally planned to coincide with renovations to the museums, leaves Harvard students and faculty without many essential research and teaching pieces. And they say that contrary to the museums’ normal practice, professors were not consulted before the works were removed.

Professor of the History of Art and Architecture Ewa Lajer-Burcharth says she thinks her students will suffer from the artwork’s absence. Lajer-Burcharth said she usually assigns papers on several pieces in the Winthrop collection and conducts section discussions in the galleries.

“I strongly believe the collection should not leave the Museums whose strength it is to have it,” she says. “It should be used for instruction, not to showcase the Museums abroad.”

Though she says museum officials have helped in finding alternative solutions for the class, Lajer-Burcharth says even the best substitutions couldn’t replace the pieces on tour.

“It’s not the same,” she says. “I always work with this collection. Without it, the museum is severely depleted.”

Though he was not directly affected by the Winthrop’s departure, Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology David G. Mitten emphasizes the importance of keeping the Fogg’s pieces on campus.

“We need to have our collections here for the Harvard community,” he says.

Other department members say they feel the museums did not check with them before planning the exhibition.

“I’ve been completely kept out of this,” one professor of the history of art and architecture says. “They never consulted me. Everything I learned was through the grapevine.”

Lajer-Burcharth also says she was not consulted.

According to Fogg Associate Curator Stephan S. Wolohojian, who curated the Winthrop tour, the museums normally take into account academics before loaning work to other institutions.

“We never take anything down if it’s up for teaching purposes,” he says.

The tour has been in the planning process for years, Wolohojian says, and professors had ample time to object if the absence of a work would interfere with their teaching.