Another original piece of Frank Lloyd Wright artwork is coming home to the Darwin Martin

House on Jewett Parkway.

The Martin House Restoration Corp. has reacquired one of the 75 original &#8220Tree of

Life&#8221 windows designed by Wright for the Martin House. The window, which had been in New

York University&#8217s Grey Art Gallery, is now in storage and will be reinstalled just before

the Martin House&#8217s restoration is completed in October 2011.

The window arrived May 26, after it was purchased from the permanent collection of the Grey

Art Gallery. The price was not released.

This marks the first time any museum has deaccessioned a piece of Darwin Martin House art

glass designed by Wright.

The addition will mean that the corporation possesses 196 of the 394 original pieces of art

glass from the five buildings of the Darwin Martin House complex. The term &#8220art

glass&#8221 also encompasses skylights, wall sconces, light fixtures and glass doors designed

by Wright for the Martin House.

Eric Jackson-Forsberg, the Martin House Restoration Corp.&#8217s curator, said the initial

contact with the Grey Gallery was made at least seven years ago.

The corporation plans to commission reproductions of &#8220Tree of Life&#8221 windows to

complete the restoration of the house &#8212 but only as a last resort.

&#8220We don&#8217t want to reproduce any pieces if there&#8217s any hope of getting the

originals back,&#8221 said Jackson-Forsberg. &#8220It&#8217s kind of a tough call

sometimes.&#8221

According to Jackson-Forsberg, &#8220Tree of Life&#8221 windows are among the more common

pieces of Martin House art glass found in public collections. Thirteen of the windows are

scattered around the country, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Art Institute of

Chicago, the Corning Museum of Glass and the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va.

The Martin House Restoration Corp. currently has 33 &#8220Tree of Life&#8221 pieces,

leaving 29 unaccounted for. According to Jackson-Forsberg, a little more than half of the 260

pieces of art glass originally installed inside the Darwin Martin House have yet to be

reacquired or reproduced.

Most of the art glass pieces not owned by the Martin House were lost during the 1940s and

1950s when Darwin R. Martin, son of Darwin D. Martin and executor of his estate, privately

sold and traded Wright pieces to various dealers.

&#8220This was an ideal situation for a work of art that was taken from its original

context to be put back into the restoration efforts,&#8221 said Lynn Gumpert, director of the

Grey Art Gallery.

Gumpert noted that works of decorative art, such as the &#8220Tree of Life&#8221 window, is

not a strength of the gallery, which holds a permanent collection of 4,800 works. The window

was the only Wright piece owned by the gallery.

While declining to reveal the price, the Martin House corporation did say it was far less

than the market value for the piece, which could easily top $100,000. Gumpert wouldn&#8217t

comment on the price either, except to say that the gallery followed transactional guidelines

as set out by the American Association of Museums.

Although the &#8220Tree of Life&#8221 is one of the more well-known art glass designs by

Wright, Jackson-Forsberg said that neither Wright nor Martin gave the design that name.

Evidence suggests the popular term originates from the mid-1960s, after Martin and Wright had

died.

&#8220Since then, it has stuck,&#8221 said Jackson-Forsberg. &#8220No one can stop calling

them that.&#8221