Diego Rivera s The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City at the San Francisco Art Institute Photo: Steve Rhodes
The proposed sale of a famed Diego Rivera mural at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), which administrators have said would raise much needed funds for the struggling school, has drawn criticism from local artists and city leaders, leading to a last minute move to protect it. The
Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City was commissioned by the university in 1931 and is now valued at $50 million. “This is an incredibly unconscionable decision,” the artist and SFAI alumn Catherine Opie wrote in an open letter. “Of course, I want SFAI to survive, but not by gutting one of the most important artworks in the history of the institution.”