San Diego

The Board of Supervisors withdrew its approval Tuesday of a plan to paint a seven-story mural on an exterior wall of the downtown jail.

In a 3-2 vote, the supervisors reversed an August decision authorizing artist Mario Acevedo Torero to paint his mural “The Child,” depicting a young child in an outstretched palm surrounded by a ring of flags.

The image, first created in 1979, has been presented to top officials worldwide, including former President Reagan, Mother Theresa and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Supervisor Susan Golding, who had voted to approve the mural on the wall at B and Front streets, reversed her position, effectively killing the project. The supervisors then voted unanimously to postpone the matter indefinitely.

Golding said she was concerned that a nonprofit group organizing the project might be using an image on a county facility for fund-raising purposes, and worried that the organization has no “track record.”

County judges had renewed their opposition to the project in a letter to board Chairman John MacDonald Monday. MacDonald and George Bailey also opposed the project. Supervisors Brian Bilbray and Leon Williams supported it.

Dan Garcia, director of The Child foundation, said that, “if they don’t want (the mural) on the wall, for whatever reason, then maybe God will provide another place for it, a better place for it.”