MINNEAPOLIS — When Rita Berg encountered Sioux City’s famed Corn Room mural, it was clear there was a lot going on with it.
The huge, legendary mural was painted by the Iowa-born artist Grant Wood in 1926 in the historic Martin Hotel in downtown Sioux City. Later, for some reason, the artwork was covered in wallpaper. In 1979, the mural was rediscovered and, in 1986, it was donated to the Sioux City Art Center by the owner of the building. One corporate bankruptcy, court fight and auction later, the artwork was again donated, for good this time, to the Art Center. There, it became a top attraction.
But the Corn Room mural, a rural Iowa landscape in fifty shades of yellow, had seen better days. It didn’t always look like that.
The Sioux City Art Center this year shipped the multi-panel painting to the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis for a thorough, modern conservation job.
The mural arrived in Minneapolis in a series of batches. A team of three conservators — Allexa Beller, Kristy Jeffcoat and Berg — have been diligently working on it.