Putting a Firewall Around Murals : ‘Old Woman of the Freeway’ gets a new lease on life

She has been missed, and it’s wonderful news that she’s coming back. The “Old Woman of the Freeway”--first painted on the wall of a 25-room hotel off the Hollywood Freeway in 1974 and then unceremoniously painted over 12 years later--will be restored under a settlement reached between artist Kent Twitchell and the building’s owners.

Few who drove past the mural can forget the white-haired woman with the colorful afghan thrown dramatically over her shoulder and twirling into space. In the dozen years it was there, “Old Woman” became perhaps the best known and best loved mural in a city that increasingly has become known for its murals. Twitchell modeled the woman after an actressnow living in Laguna Beach, who resembled his great-grandmother.

But affection alone can’t preserve such a work of art, as Twitchell and fans of the “Old Woman” learned when it was painted over. The law, however, can help. The state Supreme Court, ruling in a case involving a bulldozed Boyle Heights mural, determined last year that murals are protected under the California Art Preservation Act of 1980. That means owners must give artists 30 days notice to remove their works before they are destroyed.

After the court’s ruling, the owners of the Twitchell mural, Koichi Kurokawa and the Prince Hotels Inc., agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by Twitchell. The owners will provide $125,000 for restoration and $50,000 toward Twitchell’s legal fees. Twitchell will also be allowed to extend the mural, which was partially obscured by a parking lot built in 1982, to an adjoining wall.

The past few years of litigation also have proven to be a learning experience for the mural’s owners. Their lawyer expressed the hope that the Twitchell case, by its very notoriety, can help preserve other works of art in the city. That is our hope also.

Welcome back, “Old Woman.”