ARTIST SUES OVER DESTROYED SCHOOL MURAL
He says there was no warning, that it could have been preserved
A renowned San Diego Chicano artist who watched as an excavator demolished his 32-year-old mural at a Logan Heights school in September has sued San Diego Unified School District and a construction company over the destruction of the artwork.
Muralist Salvador Roberto Torres painted the mural in the late 1980s on an outside wall at Memorial Prep Middle School. The colorful, 75-foot-by-45-foot mural depicted diverse students, graduates, veterans of World War I and Sharon “Christa” McAuliffe, who died in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion.
The school campus is undergoing construction to transform the elementary school and middle school into a K-12 complex. The building with Torres’ mural was torn down on Sept. 23.
The 9-page suit, filed last week in San Diego federal court, alleges the school district did not notify Torres about the mural’s demolition. It also alleges the mural could have been removed without being destroyed through a method known as the Strappo technique, which “only requires removing the film or outermost layer of the surface composed of the paint,” according to the suit.
The complaint is asking that the issue be resolved in a jury trial. Torres is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
In an email Tuesday, a school district spokeswoman said the district does not comment on pending litigation.
Torres, artists and community members unsuccessfully rallied last year to stop the demolition. One resident held a sit-in protest at the site before being taken away by police officers. Community members who advocated for the mural said then that the artwork was an important part of the community’s history and culture.
In September San Diego Unified officials said Torres’ mural could not be saved because it was painted on a classroom building that contained asbestos.
District officials said, though, that the murals were documented in highresolution color and blackand-white photos, and those images would be housed at the San Diego History Center and the UC Santa Barbara Library Special Research Collections, the district said.
The suit alleges that action by the district also violated Torres’ rights.
“The school district, at the very moment it had just dishonored the artist with mutilation and destruction of the Mural, brazenly announced its intent to also infringe the copyright in the Mural, exclusively held by [Torres], by making or having unauthorized, bogus copies made,” the suit states.
Torres’ mural is one of several at the campus that were painted by San Diego artists and were slated for demolition. Other artists have spent several months advocating for their murals after Torres’ work was destroyed.
Artists Salvador “Sal” Barajas and Mario Torero obtained an attorney and sought help from art conservator Nathan Zakheim to negotiate with the school district in November. Zakheim, who is based in Los Angeles, estimates that Torres’ mural was worth at least $4 million, based on what the artist’s individual easel paintings are worth, but adjusted for the size of the mural.
He estimates the remaining murals are worth more than $600,000.
San Diego Unified spokeswoman Jamie Ries said one mural was preserved at its current location. Torero’s mural, which was painted on removable panels, was removed and will be relocated on campus in the future.
“Recognizing the area’s rich public art and mural history, new public art and spaces for future public art are built into the new facilities currently under construction,” said Ries.
The district anticipates construction of the new campus will be complete in spring of 2023.
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