The Chicago Art Institute’s famous Michigan Avenue lions went back on guard outside the museum Tuesday, having returned from a month of conservation work.
Sporting a fresh coat of wax, the lions were reinstalled on their plinths flanking the main entrance, lifted by a crane from a flatbed truck. They had received a deep cleaning and coating of the protective wax at Conservation of Sculpture & Objects Studio, Inc., an art restoration service in west suburban Forest Park.
Advertisement
The lions were removed for their spa treatment on June 14, having been outside for 128 years, Art Institute objects conservator Rachel Sabino told the Tribune at the time. It was their “first deep cleaning in decades,” Sabino said. They were also checked for corrosion.
The bronze statues were sculpted by artist Edward Kemeys for the museum in 1893, in time for the first Chicago World’s Fair, and commissioned by Florence Lathrop Field, wife of Henry Field. According to a 2018 account from the Art Institute, the lions were installed the following year: “The lion on the north pedestal is ‘on the prowl.’ The other, ‘in an attitude of defiance’ on the south pedestal was, according to the artist, ‘the most difficult I have ever attempted.’”
Advertisement
They have since become Chicago icons, predating and the equals to Buckingham Fountain (1927), the Wrigley Building (finished in 1924), the Picasso (1967) and of course Cloud Gate (2006).
dgeorge@chicagotribune.com
