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Experts: Courtroom art ‘priceless’
“Priceless” and “spectacular” were just two of the adjectives used by two Chicago art conservation experts to describe the artwork recently uncovered on the ceiling of the Fayette Circuit Courtroom during a tour on Monday.
Paintings conservators Elizabeth Kendall and Peter Schoenmann of PARMA Conservation (Preservation And Recovery of Masterpieces of Art) examined the artwork at the request of local citizens interested in preserving the work.
The Fayette County Commissioners have said no taxpayer money would be used to restore the artwork. They have also said those interested in saving the artwork must find grant funding in a time period so as not to hold up renovation of the old courthouse.
According to the information presented by the company, PARMA has restored more than 65 murals in post offices including those in Liberty and Cambridge City. Kendall spent 16 years in Italy restoring several pieces of artwork in Florence and Parma.
“I worked in Italy on many spectacular pieces of art and I have just as much appreciation for the arts in this country that are a hundred years old which is also art history. (It) needs to be saved and not painted over or thrown away because we won’t have it back again,” Kendall said. “All across the country they’re saving murals in courthouses so why wouldn’t you want to do it here?”
The artwork is believed to have been painted on the ceiling in the 1879-81 era when the county built the new jail and sheriff’s residence across 4th Street, according to Doug Howard, former county commissioner who has researched commissioners’ minutes from that era.
He said there was major renovation in the courtroom while court was conducted in an opera house across Central Avenue.
“It was done to be the best example of material and everything available,” Howard said of the renovation. “You can see several references in the minutes that basically says, ‘spare no expense.’
“One thing we do know, in 1890 when they did the last major remodel, they skimped. They were very proud they weren’t spending the money other counties were spending. They were getting by as cheaply as they could.”
Schoenmann said two men with the last names of Noxom and Toomey of St. Louis were likely the artists because they were prolific painters in the 1880s and the quality of their work is exemplified in the local courtroom. Their work can be found at least from Ohio to Iowa, he added.
He said he would research the library at the Art Institute in Chicago to find something more definitive.
Of the courthouses Kendall and Schoenmann have seen, the artwork in the local courtroom is the most elaborate of the paintings they have seen.
County Grant Administrator Jolissa Bates said she is working on grants to fund the restoration but it will take time for those applications to be submitted and approved.
Retired optometrist Dr. Donald MacDaniel lamented the fact that many older buildings have been torn down when they could have been saved. He asked that people “stop, think, evaluate” before doing anything to destroy the paintings.
“This is a unique situation, a real opportunity to take something that has really no value at this point and really turn it into something that’s priceless, something that can be studied and visited and appreciated for generations,” Schoenmann said. “I think that is probably what they had in mind when they first sought to decorate it.” |