The financially troubled San Francisco Art Institute has put its campus up for sale, and the deal includes a building adorned with a multi-million dollar mural by famed artist Diego Rivera.
With about $20 million in debt, the school once considered selling Rivera’s The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City itself to stay afloat. But rumors that the mural could be removed from the school and the city sparked outrage from artists, professors and city leaders. Concerned that the artwork might leave San Francisco, faculty and city leaders urged that it be left exactly where it is.
However, SFAI was unable to pay its debt and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on April 19. On Tuesday, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefiled announced that it had completed the sale of its historic campus in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, including Rivera’s 1931, commissioned mural.
Built in 1926, the campus covers more than 93,000 square meters in two buildings as well as the school’s iconic clock tower, courtyard, library, classrooms and galleries.
“This is a very special landmark and will make an inspiring home for another educational institution, museum or other creative/innovative use,” said Tom Christian, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield, in a statement.
The school has produced such creative art greats as photographer Annie Leibovitz, director Kathryn Bigelow and painter Kehinde Wiley.
No price is given for the entire campus. However, the sale is expected to fetch a sizable sum, as the Rivera mural in one of the two buildings is valued at $50 million in the bankruptcy filings, making it his most valuable asset.
The painting adorns the main wall of the Institute’s Diego Rivera Gallery.
In the late 1920s, the SFAI had attempted to hire Rivera to travel to San Francisco and paint a mural, but the Mexican artist’s connections and communist ideology made obtaining a visa a challenge.
In 1930, then-SFAI President William Gerstle Rivera helped obtain a visa and commissioned the work, which the SFAI says is a tribute to the industrial worker.
Depicting the building of a city and the making of a fresco, the painting depicts the different types of people involved in the task, including artisans, engineers, artists, and architects.
True to his ideal of celebrating the worker, Rivera conspicuously placed construction workers, laborers, and artists higher up in the 74-foot-wide painting, with their sleeves rolled up and overalls on. The only men in suits, the rich and powerful, are placed at the bottom of the work. Rivera is shown off-centre, brush and palette in hand, with her back to the viewer.
An oversized depiction of a worker on the mural has a red star on his breast pocket that suspiciously resembles a symbol of communism, but which Rivera says was a tobacco label.
When rumors surfaced that the SFAI Board of Trustees was considering selling the mural, it sparked outrage from the faculty, who stated in an open letter that the sale and removal of the mural “damaged the reputation, heritage and position of the school harm”.
“We believe any sale of the mural that results in its removal from the Chestnut campus is unreasonable, and we ask for your ideas and resources while we find ways to prevent this,” said the union, which houses associate professors represents, in the letter. “We have a predominantly white and extremely wealthy board of directors who are trying to protect their own wealth by selling a black artist’s work to another white and incredibly powerful buyer.”
The professors named filmmaker George Lucas as a “powerful buyer,” who, according to the New York Times, had expressed interest in purchasing the mural for Los Angeles’ under-construction Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
“Leaving the mural in place isn’t just ‘first choice’ — it’s the only choice,” San Francisco board member Aaron Peskin said in a tweet.
In response, San Francisco regulators designated the mural as a city landmark in January 2021, which would prevent removal.
