School demolition delayed as beauty of its hidden art masterpiece is revealed

“Its rich harmonies of ‘blues, greens, creams and browns’ are warmly recalled by former staff and pupils”

Rare colour photographs have revealed the true beauty of an art masterpiece which is at risk of being lost forever.

The Manchester Evening News revealed how wrecking crews are due to demolish the empty school building where it is this week.

It is a mural by Hungarian artist, George Mayer-Marton, who emigrated to England to save his work from the Nazis, when he was living in Austria in the later 1930s.

The fresco from 1954, The Five Joyful Mysteries of the Virgin’s Rosary, filled a whole wall at St Ambrose Barlow RC School in Swinton. The school has been shut for 14 years and is to be bulldozed so the site can be used for affordable housing.

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The building, in Shaftesbury Road, is now owned by Salford City Council as the school relocated to a brand new site in Wardley. Demolition was due to start today (Monday, June 30) but has now been delayed until July 14 while the council seek the opinion of experts on whether the work is worth saving.

Meanwhile the great nephew of the artist, Nick Braithwaite, who made an application for the mural to be listed on Thursday last week, has beem able to colourise a picture of the work. It shows vividly how stunning the fresco is.

In the 1990s the work was inexplicably plastered over, and it has remained forgotten, out of sight. It would take a huge amount of money to remove the coverings and retrieve and preserve the mural.

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In his application for the school to be listed, Nick writes: “The building was designed by W&RB Ellis who also designed the Grade II Listed Church of the Holy Rosary at Fitton Hill in Oldham and which also contains a mural by George Mayer-Marton.

“It is a fairly typical post war building with an attractive modern style entrance hall containing the mural. The disused site has been used for filming the TV programme Waterloo.

“The entrance hall to the school contains a fresco by the artist George Mayer-Marton (1897-1960) which was a present from the architects to the school. It is the only surviving fresco (without mosaic alongside) by the artist, and it is unusual and possibly unique in the UK in being in the buon fresco medium (painted onto wet plaster).

“It is of significant artistic value according to expert opinion. The fresco has been plastered over but is believed to be salvageable by expert Thomas Organ who was responsible for the salvage of the Feibusch Mural, Pilgrim’s Progress in Eastbourne.”

Experts say uncovering to reveal the fresco could take 10 – 15 days per square metre, including final cleaning and localised retouching, requiring a budget of £150,000 – £225,000. This would need to be confirmed by further trials to determine the safest way to uncover the painting.

Options for relocation of the mural or preservation in situ within the redeveloped site will need to be investigated further. Ball-park figures for removal of the wall either as one piece or in sections are difficult to determine but recent examples where works by Banksy have been detached have typically been in the region of £200,000 to £250,000 for the larger pieces of comparable size.”

Clare A.P. Willsdon, Professor of the History of Western Art and Head of History of Art, School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow, says of the mural: “If the mural is one of Mayer-Marton’s very few surviving large-scale works (his studio contents were destroyed in the Second World War, and there are no known remaining murals by him in Austria), it is also one of his most playful images.

Representing Mary, Joseph, the Magi and the other Biblical figures with lively expressions and personalities, it was clearly intended to engage a youthful audience, and its rich harmonies of ‘blues, greens, creams and browns’ are warmly recalled by former staff and pupils.”

The current head of St Ambrose Barlow RC High, Ben Davis, became aware of the mural while researching the school’s history for its 70th anniversary. He said: “I did contact Save Britain’s Heritage, who also contacted the council, and were in discussion with them. I wish there had been a way to save it years ago. The bottom line is it should never have been covered up.”

A Salford City Council spokesman said: “The former St Barlow RC High school in Swinton has been closed for 14 years and we have external funding for it to be demolished so it can be used as a new site for housing. Very recently it has come to light that there was a historical fresco within the school which has been concealed for many years, although its current condition beneath the paint is unknown.

“The council has been in discussions with interested members of the community about how we may protect the wall during demolition to understand if the mural can be retrieved in the future.” The mural was covered prior to the council taking over responsibility of the site.

Councillor John Warmisham, who sits as an Independent Socialist on Salford Council, said: “I find it appalling that this mural could be lost. The council and the diocese should be working together to save this important piece of art.”