HOWLAND — The Butler Institute of American Art can remove a Pierre Soulages ceramic tile mural that fills the massive front window of the Medici Museum, the 11th District Court of Appeals ruled this week.

Butler Executive Director and Chief Curator Louis Zona said he is “overjoyed” with the ruling and that the Butler museum was “pretty confident” that it owned the mural.

Foundation Medici will consider filing a discretionary appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court, its attorney Michael D. Rossi, said.

The yearslong battle for ownership of the mural, which was appraised at $650,000 when it was acquired in 2010, began after the Medici Foundation severed an agreement with the Butler in the summer of 2019.

The Youngstown-based Butler museum had operated its Trumbull branch at 9350 E. Market St. until Medici decided to operate the building as a standalone gallery.

Foundation Medici provided the land and the bulk of funding for the building, which opened in 1996. The Butler moved out in November 2019 with its property. The large Soulages mural was the last item and its ownership was in dispute.

Foundation Medici sued to keep the mural, arguing that it was a permanent fixture and that money for the expansion that housed it was raised with the understanding the mural would remain at that building.

Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew Logan ruled in July 2020 that the mural was the property of the Butler, but Foundation Medici filed an appeal that August, delaying the movement of the mural for an additional two years.

This week, the 11th District Court of Appeals affirmed Logan’s ruling and ended the stay that allowed the Soulages to remain in Medici’s Howland art gallery.

Rossi said the appeal took a long time to be decided — longer than usual — and that he and Foundation Medici had been waiting for a result.

Zona said the Butler had paperwork showing the art piece was donated to the Butler museum by the Oliver Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh, where the mural had hung prior to coming to Trumbull County.

He said the museum also has a letter from Soulages — the French artist is now 102 — thanking the Butler for saving an important piece of his work.

“It will have a nice, refreshed home here at the Butler Institute in Youngstown, with a beautiful place facing Wick Avenue, and it’s going to be tremendously appealing,” Zona said.

The Butler is in the midst of building a $2.6 million, 3,810-square-foot expansion to its building on Wick Avenue in Youngstown, expected to be completed by the end of the year. It will have four levels and will include two large exhibition spaces for large art.

Zona said there will be a wall in the expansion to house the Soulages.

“Right now, it’s a skeleton, but it’s going to be handsome,” he said.

He said the Butler intends to work on relocating the mural as soon as possible.

Rossi said if Foundation Medici decides not to appeal to a higher court, it will move on to discussing the removal process.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com