About a year after filing for bankruptcy, the historic San Francisco Art Institute, home to a famous multimillion-dollar mural, was sold to a new nonprofit led by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.
Faced with a debt of about 20 million dollars, the beleaguered institute in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco declared bankrupt last April. The property was put up for sale in the summer, raising questions about what would happen to the mural inside by famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera.
Many artists and city leaders have been adamant that the mural remain where it is. San Francisco supervisors had gone so far as to designate the mural as a landmark to prevent it from being removed.
This week, the nonprofit, made up of local arts leaders and philanthropists, including Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, purchased the iconic campus for about $30 million, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. reported. The sale includes the mural.
In bankruptcy filings, the mural was valued at $50 million, making it the institute's most valuable asset.
The nonprofit intends to maintain the 93,000-square-foot campus as an arts institute and will begin addressing a backlog of maintenance issues, which could take up to four years, the Chronicle reported. The mural will remain in an observation room.
The campus, built in 1926, includes two buildings, a bell tower, a courtyard, a library, classrooms and galleries. Notable alumni include photographer Annie Leibovitz and painter Kehinde Wiley.
The institute had commissioned Rivera in the early 1930s to paint the mural, which was intended to be a tribute to the industrial worker. The painting depicts engineers, artists and sculptors, creating at the same time a fresco and a city. Rivera, who has three frescoes in San Francisco, can be seen on the back of the 74-foot-wide painting, holding a paintbrush and palette.
