AP — N.C. WYETH MURAL DONATED TO HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE

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WILMINGTON, DEL. (AP) — A 60-foot by 19-foot mural by N.C. Wyeth in the lobby of the WSFS Bank downtown has been donated to the Historical Society of Delaware.

WSFS said it will donate “Apotheosis of the Family,” which features youthful images of the Wyeth family and has been at the bank for 75 years.

The giant mural painted by the great American illustrator to celebrate the land, family and self-sufficiency will be moved three blocks south and across the street, from 838 North Market Street to the historical society’s library building at 505 North Market Street

The painting will be installed on the library’s south wall.

Joan Reynolds Hoge, executive director of the society, said, “It means so much to us. Obviously, it’s a great opportunity for us to raise awareness within the community of what we do. This is a community artifact that we now get to share with the community in a new way.

“I think he’d be happy to have it in a history library because of his own personal interest in history.”

Estimates of the cost of creating the correct conservation conditions in the building are as high as $600,000, Hoge said.

In the next few weeks, the society will determine the cost of installing and caring for the painting, Hoge said, and fundraising will begin next year.

The fate of mural, installed in the WSFS Bank building in 1932, had been uncertain since 2005, when WSFS announced plans to relocate from its longtime headquarters to a new building at 500 Delaware Avenue The bank moved to Delaware Avenue in March; its new lobby features a 15-by-6-foot painting Wyeth created as a study for the mural.

Hoge said the earliest the work could be installed would be in the summer. “I think it’s going to draw national attention,” she said. “N.C. Wyeth certainly has a national and international reputation and just the sheer size of it. That makes it quite unique.”