Twenty feet above the Medinah Temple’s main stage, a worker on a scaffold removes the tacks holding up Gustav Brand’s 80-foot rendering of a pilgrimage to Mecca.
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Once the Shriners decided to let go of the building, it was Smiewec’s job to drag out the storage crates, which hadn’t been touched for decades. “Some of these items probably haven’t been used since they were bought,” he says. “We forgot some of this stuff even existed.” The group brought in Mike and Randy Donley of Great American Antiques, an architectural salvage company, to sort it all out.
The real treasures will be auctioned on the temple’s main stage–the same stage on which the Medinah Shrine Circus entertained generations of Chicagoans. Brand’s 1912 painting is “probably the most significant piece,” says Randy Donley. “Thirty years ago, it was appraised at $40,000. It’s almost impossible to ascertain its true value because there is no track record of sales of Brand’s work, which was mostly done in public buildings that have been lost. We estimate it may be worth well over $100,000.”
Partway through taking down the Brand, Smiewec and the Donleys realize that no one will be able to see the painting to full effect if it’s on the ground. So they tack it back up.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Eugene Zakusilo.
