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04-24-08, 01:17 PM
Pittsburgh Subway Station Tile Mural Worth $15 Million
By RAMESH SANTANAM
Associated Press Writer
Posted: Today at 10:16 a.m.
Updated: Today at 1:07 p.m.
PITTSBURGH — A mural in a subway station is worth $15 million, more than the cash-strapped transit agency expected, raising questions about how it should be cared for once it is removed before the station is demolished.
"We did not expect it to be that much," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokeswoman Judi McNeil said Thursday. "We don't have the wherewithal to be a caretaker of such a valuable piece."
It would cost the agency more than $100,000 a year to insure the 60-foot-by-13-foot tile mural by Romare Bearden, McNeil said. Bearden was paid $90,000 for the mural, titled "Pittsburgh Recollections." It was installed in 1984.
The subway station that is home to the mural is being demolished as part of a $435 million plan to extend the subway. The authority didn't know what it was going to do with the mural but wanted to know its value before taking it down, McNeil said.
The Port Authority is looking for an arts organization to bear the cost of removing, restoring, relocating and maintaining the mural, McNeil said. If that fails, the agency will either look for an arts group willing to exhibit the mural or will auction it off, she said.
The transit agency also owns a work by Sol LeWitt, an American master of conceptual art, at another subway station. LeWitt's "Thirteen Geometric Figures," 203 feet long and 9 feet tall, was paid for by philanthropist Vira I. Heinz.
The Port Authority has not decided whether to have the LeWitt piece appraised, McNeil said.
The county this year implemented a 10 percent alcoholic drink tax and $2-per-day car rental tax to help pay its $30 million subsidy for the Port Authority.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By RAMESH SANTANAM
Associated Press Writer
Posted: Today at 10:16 a.m.
Updated: Today at 1:07 p.m.
PITTSBURGH — A mural in a subway station is worth $15 million, more than the cash-strapped transit agency expected, raising questions about how it should be cared for once it is removed before the station is demolished.
"We did not expect it to be that much," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokeswoman Judi McNeil said Thursday. "We don't have the wherewithal to be a caretaker of such a valuable piece."
It would cost the agency more than $100,000 a year to insure the 60-foot-by-13-foot tile mural by Romare Bearden, McNeil said. Bearden was paid $90,000 for the mural, titled "Pittsburgh Recollections." It was installed in 1984.
The subway station that is home to the mural is being demolished as part of a $435 million plan to extend the subway. The authority didn't know what it was going to do with the mural but wanted to know its value before taking it down, McNeil said.
The Port Authority is looking for an arts organization to bear the cost of removing, restoring, relocating and maintaining the mural, McNeil said. If that fails, the agency will either look for an arts group willing to exhibit the mural or will auction it off, she said.
The transit agency also owns a work by Sol LeWitt, an American master of conceptual art, at another subway station. LeWitt's "Thirteen Geometric Figures," 203 feet long and 9 feet tall, was paid for by philanthropist Vira I. Heinz.
The Port Authority has not decided whether to have the LeWitt piece appraised, McNeil said.
The county this year implemented a 10 percent alcoholic drink tax and $2-per-day car rental tax to help pay its $30 million subsidy for the Port Authority.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.