A racist posterboard featuring images of LeBron James and monkeys was somehow put on display at a school art exhibition over the weekend ... and officials are now investigating how in the world the offensive piece was allowed to make it there.
The project -- a parody of a cereal advertisement called "Monkey Premium" -- was done by a New Hartford Central School District student in New York ... and then showed off in a school gymnasium at the New Hartford Festival of the Arts event on Saturday.