In the last days of 2011, St. Salvador Cathedral lost the colours that graced its white facade.
A group of workmen armed with hammers removed the pieces of a colourful mosaic made by the artist Fernando Llort.
That which was supposed to be a routine restoration job became the focus of a dispute because neither the government nor the author of the mosaic had been informed of the intended removal.
The cathedral is a historic temple because it contains the relics of Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the late Archbishop of the city who was murdered on the 24th of March 1980 as he was saying mass. He was known as "the bishop of the poor".
John Paul II visited the cathedral several times. The first visit was surprisingly in 1983, even though it was an unscheduled stop in his itinerary.
Last March even the president of the U.S.A. Barak Obama made the cathedral a destination of one of his travels.
On Monday 26th of December a huge white sheet went up covering the cathedral’s facade, behind it the builders began to work, removing the 2,700 pieces that made up the work of art called “The Harmony Of My People”.
22.25m in height and 16m long, this piece of art had been part of the building since 1997 and it was a memento dedicated to the peace treaties that put an end to the civil war in the country.
At first the Bishop chose not to inform the public of the rationale behind such an action, but was harshly criticized by the artist’s family and by the government. For this reason, the Archbishop Josè Luis Escobar Alas eventually broke his silence to explain that the mosaic had to be removed because it was damaged. The explanation arrived at the end of mass on the first of January.
The Bishop added that due to the effect of the sun and water the ceramic had lost its colour, become stained or partly come away from the wall.
“The pieces used to fall when touched” he declared.
Architects carried out a technical survey to try and restore the artwork, but they came to the conclusion that it was not possible.
“We were forced to take the decision to remove the mosaic, we were grieved because it was a wonderful piece of art, a true masterpiece” said Escobar, he went on to express his admiration for Llort and to ask for forgiveness for what had happened.
“We are sorry to have caused sadness and grief to the artist and his family, we ask them to be so good as to forgive us”.
Moreover the Archbishop admitted he had not informed the artist or the government about the removal, but he promised that all the pieces of the mosaic had been ‘carefully’ put into storage.
“We saved the fragments to build a historic memorial in the Cathedral” he explained, the possibility that the same artist might be engaged once more to rebuild his creation on one of the inside walls of the cathedral was not ruled out.
Fernando Llort however disagreed with the Bishop and pointed out that the pieces had been made with a firing and vitrification technique that prevents loss of colour, while the cement used to fix them to the wall could ‘last forever’, according to him.
The artist also refused to make any smaller replica of the mosaic, but he offered to rebuild what he defined as “his life’s work” in its original location, the facade of the cathedral. “I hope it will be possible to build the mosaic again. We have all the files, the plans and the colour guides, we have everything we need to do it all again” he said.
Anyway, Llort has pointed out the incongruity of the fact that the mosaic has been destroyed just before the 20 years commemoration (arranged for the 16th of January) of the 1992 peace treaties . The masterpiece (showing images of La Palma, in the north of the country) paid homage to the historic event that ended the civil war, which had lasted for 12 years.
The Ministry of Culture in El Salvador condemned the demolition of the mosaic and reported that it had been in the process of being declared a national treasure.
“As the Ministry of Culture, we condemn this action because it concerns the destruction of a point of reference for the national identity of the Salvadorians. The Law is on our side, we will take legal action because, with all due respect, it is not tolerable for the heritage of the Salvadorian people to be attacked in this manner, even if by the Church” said Ramón Rivas, National Director of Cultural Heritage in El Salvador.