The story
Walk into the marble courtyard at the heart of the Detroit Institute of Arts and you are surrounded on four walls by Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry, twenty-seven fresco panels he painted in 1932 and 1933. Edsel Ford, son of Henry, paid for them, and Rivera, a committed communist, filled the walls with the assembly lines of the Ford Rouge plant, workers and machines pressed together into something between a factory and a cathedral. Local clergy called them sacrilegious when they were unveiled. They are now the emblem of the city.
Which is why what nearly happened in 2013 was so raw. When Detroit went bankrupt, creditors eyed the museum's art, city-owned property that might be sold off to cover pensions. A rescue that became known as the Grand Bargain pulled together foundations, carmakers and the State of Michigan to raise more than 800 million dollars, cushioning pensions and moving the collection into a trust so it could never be cashed in again.
Beyond the murals the galleries are genuinely encyclopedic, from Bruegel and Van Eyck to a strong African American collection, but it is Rivera's workers people come to stand among.
