The first phase of a restoration project has been completed on “The Three Athletes,” a wall sculpture located on the north side of State Gym.

Nearly one month ago, conservators started work on the first phase in restoring the statue, which needed cleaning, regrouting and tuck pointing. The whole process took about one week to complete.

“The Iowa weather can really affect statues and sculptures,” said Lynette Pohlman, director of University Museums. “Once water gets into the grout lines, it will freeze and crack, causing the mortar to loosen.”

Pohlman said to remedy the problem, tuck pointing is done by grounding out layers of mortar between each brick and putting in new mortar.

Conservators also cleaned the sculpture, removing biological growths that appeared as black marks. Pohlman said work done to “The Three Athletes” costs $11,600 and was paid for by University Museums.

Pohlman said there is more work scheduled to be done on the statue when weather conditions improve.

“There will be more restoration done in the spring,” Pohlman said. “After the winter, a damaged boot and nose on ‘The Three Athletes’ will be rebuilt using terra cotta clay. That part will cost another $4,500.”

After the sculpture has been completely restored, it probably will not require any more work for quite some time, Pohlman said. However, she said cleaning with soap and water, as well as watching for areas that need minor tuck pointing, will be done on an annual basis.

“The University Museums has been undertaking a major ‘Art on Campus’ conservation program,” Pohlman said.

Pohlman said all of the projects will be done by the year 2000, when the University Museums — consisting of the Brunnier Art Museum, the Farmhouse Museum and the Art on Campus Collection — celebrates its 25th anniversary.

“The Three Athletes” was originally sculpted by Christian Peterson in 1936. The sculpture portrays three young male athletes in various sports — track, football and basketball.