ABOVE: A look at the murals on the third floor of the Martin County Courthouse in Fairmont. As the century-old murals are deteriorating, the county is looking for funding to get them restored.

FAIRMONT–The Martin County Commissioners received an update on their mural preservation project on Tuesday. Previously, the county had secured funding though the Minnesota Historical Society for a conservation assessment by the Midwest Art Conservation Center of murals on the third floor of the courthouse.

The murals in question are located on a dome and were painted in 1906 or 1907. As they’re more than a century old, there’s quite a bit of deterioration which is why the assessment was done in the past few months.

On Tuesday, Rita Berg with the Midwest Art Conservation Center, said to the commissioners, “it’s a very complicated project.”

She went on to say that what makes the project so complicated is the space that the murals are located in.

“Your dome has a lot of damage… in the wall structure itself. Our challenge is to remove the murals,” Berg said.

She said her group is currently working with a moving company to figure out a solution. She noted that this is not something that a conservation group typically does because usually they take murals off of walls.

“They’re on flat walls– not curved surfaces under the dome,” Berg said.

Commissioner Kathy Smith asked when they will have a cost estimate so that the county can start looking for grants. Berg said she hopes to come up with an amount in the next few weeks.

Berg added that she recently got the building plans and measurements that she needed so she will be working on an estimate.

“This is a project that’s going to take weeks or months on site. It will involve many conservators… that space is going to be out of commission. It’s a very large project. It’s not an easy undertaking,” Berg said.

Smith pointed out that the courtroom is also on the third floor. She asked whether the courtroom can still be used. Berg said it can probably be used, but for safety reasons it may present another challenge.

Commissioner Steve Flohrs asked Berg to describe what they will be doing.

Berg explained that the murals are really canvasses that have been painted and then adhered to the wall. However, she said they are unsure what kind of adhesive was used.

“Historically different things have been used. Sometime it’s a lead-base, which would be really hard to come off,” Berg said.

She said the murals on the third floor are currently detaching from the wall and a lot of it has to do with water damage and corrosion of the wall structure. She noted that there are a lot of air bubbles and that when you touch parts of the mural, you can feel space behind it but not a wall.

“The wall is literally crumbling away in certain spaces,” Berg said.

She said their initial hope was to reattach the mural onto the wall but there is no wall to reattach it to.

“This is a problem that I think has happened before because we saw evidence of nails in the mural trying to reattach it back to the wall. Previously someone has come in and tried to stick the canvasses back onto the wall,” Berg said.

She said they cannot structurally secure it back so the only way to repair them is to remove them and then put them back on. However, once removed from the wall she said it would be the county’s duty to address the structural stability of the wall.

“That will be another contractor for you guys to ensure your walls are actually stable and that there’s a good surface,” Berg said.

In closing, Berg said she saw damage on all four of the murals and while one is worse than the other, she pointed out that “it’s just a matter of time” for the rest.

“You will have to address this problem sometime down the line unfortunately,” Berg said.

Smith said, “it’s going to be a big project. Hopefully there will be some grants out there for us.”

Berg said that the director of the Midwest Art Conservation Center has experience working with different grant institutions and can provide advice once the county is ready to start applying.