Agreement reached to remove “multicultural” mural in Santa Fe | Local News



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A more than 40-year-old mural on Guadalupe Street showcasing local cultures and monuments will disappear.

The two parties in legal dispute over whether to save artist Gilberto Guzman Multi-cultural mural agreed that the painting on the state-owned Halpin building will not be saved.

Guzman, who is almost 80, has filed a lawsuit to prevent the State Department for Cultural Affairs from removing the mural, painted in 1980, as part of the agency’s plan to build the Vladem Contemporary museum on the construction site. Halpin.

But Guzman has agreed to create a scaled-down version of the mural to display in the lobby of Vladem Contemporary, the State Department for Cultural Affairs said on Friday.

“The multicultural mural will also be honored outside the building with an interpretive panel including an image of the mural, part of its history and an augmented reality opportunity to experience the mural as it existed,” according to one joint declaration of the two evenings.

The original fresco “will not remain and will therefore be covered with stucco,” the statement said.

The mural is now hidden behind a tarp. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs said the work could not be saved or moved as construction of the Vladem Contemporary progresses.

The decision to remove the mural has created controversy, with some critics denouncing it as a gentrification and erasure of long-held cultural traditions.

Those who support efforts to save the mural have argued that it could have been restored and repainted as a nod to the city’s history of creating and preserving street art.

Guzman sought permanent protection for the mural, but U.S. District Judge Kea W. Riggs denied her petition and also denied the state’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuit.

Instead, Riggs ordered the two sides to go to mediation in late August. In their joint statement, the two sides said “the case has been closed and an agreement has been reached”.

Riggs signed the dismissal order on Friday, saying it is up to both sides to “endure [their] own legal fees and costs. ”

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