| Updated: 7:38 p.m.
In a blow to preservationists and many Latter-day Saints, historic murals in the iconic Salt Lake Temple — some that were painted by Mormon artists sent to study in Paris in the 1890s — have been removed during the ongoing renovation and will not be returned.
The same extraction also is planned for the pioneer-era Manti Temple, which houses one of Mormonism’s artistic gems — a “world room” mural painted by the famed Minerva Teichert, who studied at the Chicago Art Institute in the early 20th century.
This is being done in part because officials in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints decided to eliminate the “live endowment,” in which templegoers move from room to room in a symbolic-rich reenactment of the creation, Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and humankind’s mortal journey and ultimate return to God’s presence.