Talk about a conversation piece.

Perhaps no other piece of artwork on campus has generated more hubbub than Christian Petersen’s “Conversations.” The sculpture, carefully crafted out of Bedford limestone, sits in the south entrance courtyard of the Oak-Elm residence hall.

The artwork has a history of making people talk. Not because it’s risqu‚, radical or racy, but because of what it’s had to endure. Two incidents of vandalism to the piece, in October of 1997 and 1998, resulted in extensive damage.

“Conversations” features six figures along a red brick wall adjacent to the Oak-Elm dormitory.

At the east end of the work, a girl sits alone with her legs pulled up near her chest. In the middle, a male and female are featured reading a paper together, and on the far west, a group of three girls contemplates the contents of a book.

In the fall of 1997, the sculpture was vandalized by a group of students who “decorated” it for a friend’s 18th birthday.

They used colored chalk to draw underwear and other graffiti on the figures. The students involved were identified by an accompanying birthday message they scribbled on the brick base and other areas that included the friend’s name.

Almost a year later, the work once again was defaced when it was scrawled on with permanent marker. At that time, the piece was covered with a tarp until it could be cleaned.

About a week ago, there was talk that the artwork once again had been the target of vandals after several people observed a white substance spread over the piece; however, the work had actually received a healthy dose of TLC.

On Oct. 2 and 3, a group of eight people put in about 20 hours cleaning and conserving Petersen’s “Conversations.” The white substance was a poultice used as a cleaning agent.

Vicki Dirksen, graduate student in history, was one of six students involved in the clean up.

“It was definitely an interesting project,” she said. “The poultice was used to penetrate the limestone and remove the marker spots. We also used brushes to scrub off other stuff like algae, mildew and mold.”

Mary Atherly, collections manger for University Museums, said she was very pleased with the results of the conservation effort.

“It really turned out quite well,” she said. “The group put in a lot of hard work, and it looks better now than it has in some time.”

Dirksen said the work wasn’t that bad, but it did seem a bit long at times.

“On Saturday, the work was actually kind of fun,” she said. “But on Sunday, the cold weather made it sort of a long day.”

Atherly said that there are 35 to 40 pieces of artwork on campus, and that “Conversations” is the only one that has had repetitive problems with vandalism.

“There’s been a low number of incidents involving vandalism over the years,” she said. “But any vandalism is obviously too much. All of the artwork is an extremely valuable part of our university, and we hope that students appreciate its presence and respect the work.”

Dirksen said the group received several remarks from students during and after the conservation project about how good the sculpture was looking.

“[The students] seemed to recognize the difference,” she said. “It really is a beautiful piece, and I hope that everyone will work together to keep it clean.”