Entertainment
A Mural, and the Heroic Efforts to Save It
When Pfizer moved to a new building in Manhattan last year, it left behind artwork that had hung in its lobby for 63 years. Not everyone was pleased.
For 63 years, a modernist sculptural mural in the lobby of Pfizer’s world headquarters on East 42nd Street in Manhattan celebrated a millennia-long parade ofmedical pioneers like Hippocrates and Louis Pasteur.
The eye-catching metalmural, called “Medical Research Through the Ages,” by the Greek-born Nikos Bel-Jon, was visible through tall glass windows to passing New Yorkers as well as visiting dignitaries headed to the United Nations down the street.
But the mural faced possible destruction after the pharmaceutical giant left it behind last year when it moved to Hudson Yards.
The orphaned artwork’s plight then grew more direas the building’s new owners, planning to gut the lobby, secured a demolition permit that was to expire in September of this year.
The race against the wrecking crews was on.
Over several frenzied weeks, a dogged 27-year-old preservationist scrambled to find a new home for the mural as well as a deep-pocketed benefactor to pay for its relocation. A billionaire came to view it. The demolition deadline was extended. And then, late in the process, a promising possible recipient of the mural bowed out, saying the 14-by-36-foot work was simply too enormous to accommodate.
