Papp Iron Works is proud to have played an integral role with the restoration project of Artist Hildreth Meiere’s mosaic murals now on permanent display at The Center for Hellenic Studies in Northwest D.C, a Harvard institution devoted to ancient Greek language and culture.

The murals are simply masterpieces: multicolored marble mosaics, depicting each side of the Strait of Gibraltar. Each mosaic contains 46,000, from 13 different countries. The panels were designed back in 1960 for Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Headquarters.

The artist was Hildreth Meiere: perhaps the 20th century’s most famous art-deco muralist. She started working in the 1920s, and her mosaics can be found everywhere, from Radio City Music Hall in New York City, to the National Cathedral and National Academy of Sciences in Washington, to the State Capitol Building in Lincoln, Neb.

As International Hildreth Meiere Association vice-president Hildreth “Hilly” Meiere Dunn (the artist’s granddaughter) Hilly had thought the Prudential panels were thought to be lost but located stored away in one of Prudential’s .NJ locations.

Originally there were actually three panels; the center one depicted the actual Rock of Gibraltar on which Prudential’s slogan is based. Prudential donated that one to the Newark Museum, which Papp Iron Works also did the structural steel for, and then the Association contracted with Papp Iron Works for the steel requirements as well as providing a temporary artist atelier at its facility for the team of mosaic restoration artists during the months long restoration project.

The mosaic restoration was led by Tony Shiavo, who coincidently worked with Hildreth Meiere on creating the original mosaics back in 1960.

For additional information, contact Allan Papp at allanp@pappironworks.com