Moscone Sculpture Finds a Home : Art: After a nomadic journey, a bust of the slain San Francisco mayor will be housed at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park.

The bust of slain Mayor George Moscone, on the road for years after being run out of town a decade ago, is coming home to stay.

The Robert Arneson sculpture, a multicolored, 1,000-pound ceramic smiling head atop a pedestal marked with dark images and words relating to the mayor’s 1978 murder, has found a resting place at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park. It will appear in the museum sometime in early April.

Foster Goldstrom, who owns the wandering bust, has agreed to hand it over on long-term loan and says he’s considering donating it to the museum.

“I told them they can have it, but I would like them to take some other pieces of my collection and put them on exhibit,” he said. “We’ve come to a handshake agreement; there’s nothing on paper.”

“We’re very excited to think that this is going to happen,” said Henry Parker, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, including the de Young. “It’s an important Arneson from an important moment (in history) of an important figure. I think it’s time to take a new look at it as a work of art. It will be looked on as an Arneson rather than as a memorial to Mr. Moscone.”

The bust, commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission to adorn the new Moscone Convention Center, was booted from the facility two days after its public unveiling in 1981. It landed in a box in the basement of the Museum of Modern Art. Then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein and others in the city found the artwork offensive, and the commission rejected it.

At the time, Feinstein was reported as saying, “This is not what civic art should be. Have you seen a statue of Abraham Lincoln with references to Mr. Booth on it?”

So Goldstrom, who lives in Oakland and New York, where he owns an art gallery, purchased the piece for $50,000 and added it to his collection, which toured the nation for five years. He recently decided the time had come for the bust to return home.

An official announcement on the agreement will be made in mid-March. On Wednesday, Goldstrom met with Parker and museum curator Steve Nash, who is to decide which of the collector’s other pieces will also move to the de Young.

In addition to the Moscone sculpture, Goldstrom is offering Louise Nevelson’s “Royal Tide V” painted wood construction; large site plans drawn by architect Bernard Ralph Maybeck; the canvas painting “Blue” by Sam Francis; John De Andrea’s “Self Portrait With Sculpture,” and other pieces.

“They are absolutely thrilled to be talking about finally bringing this bust back,” Goldstrom says. “It’s about time. It was a very, very upbeat meeting. They are trying to build a California, Bay Area art collection. They’d be crazy not to take some of these (other) most famous pieces.”

Observers agree that the bust belongs in San Francisco, but not at a government facility, such as the Moscone Convention Center or the airport.

Artist Arneson agreed: “I would probably be happy to see it just about anywhere, but not at the airport. I wouldn’t want it in a glass, bulletproof case.”

Goldstrom says he was surprised by the tepid response his offer initially received from the city’s art community. The Museum of Modern Art, for instance, was cool to him, he said.

“The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is focusing more on German and avant-garde art,” Goldstrom said. “No one can seem to put a name on what the Museum of Modern Art is about.”

The nearly 8-foot sculpture still evokes strong emotions in San Francisco, 13 years after Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were gunned down in City Hall by Dan White.

Arneson, known for his offbeat approach, created a pedestal covered with drops of blood-red paint, four bullet holes, and an impression of a Smith & Wesson pistol like the one used by White. There is also a ceramic Twinkie, representing the diminished capacity, or “Twinkie” defense, White used successfully at his 1979 trial.

“It’s a piece of San Francisco’s history,” said Supervisor Terence Hallinan. “Now that time has passed, feelings have calmed down. I think the city’s ready to put it in a museum.”

Said Goldstrom, “I think it’s going to be a tremendous draw for the museum. People will revel in it and marvel at the size of it; they all think it’s 4-feet tall. They’re going to go: ‘Wow.’ ”