A Mural Dilemma

[ornoth]

Today’s Boston Globe has an article on Newbury Street’s DuBarry mural, which depicts nearly a hundred famous Bostonians in a trompe d’oeil façade.

The mural sits just outside my condo’s bay window, and is a well-known and popular landmark. Every day without exception, a dozen or so Back Bay shoppers and sightseers stop and photograph the painting. Numerous tour busses stop here to disgorge their camera-wielding passengers, who gather uncertainly in the middle of the busy parking lot that faces the mural, gazing silently up like a flock of emperor penguins. And, of course, there’s the constant stream of Duck Boat Tours, whose announcers also point out the mural on their loudspeakers as they swing by.

The accompanying photograph was taken in May of 2001, the day I moved into my condo. As you can see, there were maybe a half dozen small areas of damage in the middle of the mural where the brick was exposed. As usual, click for bigness.

Today, I would say that nearly a quarter of the mural is gone, either fallen, as you see, or peeled off. The mural’s decay has been precipitous, and it has become an eyesore, although the tourists still come by the dozens and take their pictures still. Hence the concern over the mural’s fate that you can read about in the article.

Amazingly, the article even mentions the “homeless squatter” that I wrote about a year ago in my journal entry “Home is where you hang your cinder block…”.

The renovation of the building—which excludes the mural—has been going on all winter, and looks like it will continue for quite a while to come.

Pathetically, the question of ownership and responsibility for the mural’s party wall remains an unresolved issue between these two prominent businessmen. The mural’s prognosis remains uncertain.