SEQUIM — An art expert is questioning the ability to preserve the 154-foot mural on the Lehman’s Grocery building if contractors attempt to move the wall it is painted on.
John Lebowitz, who is renovating the former family grocery store at 145 E. Washington St. into a retail mini-mall, said the mural would have to be removed after an engineer’s report indicated much of the wall would have replaced to meet seismic codes.
In a report dated Feb. 26, Roger Waterhouse of Artech Fine Art Services in Seattle, said the greater portion of the stucco substrate (foundation) holding the mural “has been compromised by damage via cracking and moisture wicking from above and below and general lack of maintenance.”
Waterhouse says the stucco substrate was applied over marginal framing, window glass, beaded foam and distressed sheathing in various combinations.
The stucco substrate is behind about 80 percent of the mural, according to the report.
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