Photo: Jamie Cotten
Angelo di Benedetto’s “Justice Through The Ages” has been dismantled and, presumably, destroyed.
LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — Angelo di Benedetto’s mural “Justice Through The Ages,” which has hung on the Colorado Supreme Court building since its construction in 1977, is no more.
A plastic sheet atop the mural’s scaffolding was peeled back today, revealing only exposed trusses. Law Week Colorado photographer Jamie Cotten captured the image above at approximately 4:55 p.m. Thursday.
At the time of its installation, di Benedetto’s work was the largest figurative mural in the United States. The building upon which it was affixed is being torn down to make way for the new Ralph L. Carr Judicial Complex.
“It is the hope of the artist that this painting will endure and give knowledge and pride to all races for their similar desires for justice and peace,” the artist said at the time of the mural’s dedication on Oct. 12, 1978. Di Benedetto died in 1992.
The mural was featured on the cover of the 1982 Colorado Legal Directory.
“One of the reasons the publisher has featured Angelo di Benedetto is that we are aware of the fact that this mural is a legacy to Colorado,” the publisher wrote then. “It is a piece of history that Colorado owns.”
The artist’s “canvas” was 74 separate panels of compressed kiln-dried asbestos cement. It proved a disastrous choice. The few venues that were considering accepting the gigantic artwork politely declined once its asbestos composition was revealed; asbestos is a known carcinogen.
The Colorado Council on the Arts recently voted to deaccession di Benedetto’s mural, enabling its destruction. Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, as the judicial branch’s top official, citing the mural’s hazardous content, made the final call. The mural is being treated as hazardous waste and is being disposed of in accordance with state health laws. The branch never contemplated leaving the building standing to accommodate the artwork, and the artist’s death made questionable any claim to preserve the artwork under the U.S. Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.
A much-smaller copy of the mural may be displayed in the new Carr Center upon its completion; the two-foot by 12-foot copy would be stitched together from photos taken during the past few months.
