'THE AWAKENING' LIES DORMANT AMID LEGAL DISPUTE.

Byline: TOM SHARPE 

Efforts to reopen downtown museum, which houses massive artwork, have failed

By Tom Sharpe

The New Mexican 

A bank wants to take over a downtown Santa Fe property used for four years as a private museum focusing on a giant, religious-themed artwork.

Los Alamos National Bank's complaint filed in state District Court on Sept. 26 seeks to foreclose on the museum founders Jean-Claude and Michelle Gaugy's mortgage because they quit making payments three months ago.

Michelle Gaugy said the property settlement in her 2007 divorce from Jean-Claude awarded him the museum at 125 N. Guadalupe St. and her the Gaugy Gallery at 418 Canyon Road. But she said her ex-husband hasn't been able to make the monthly payments of $9,775 on the $1,721,738 debt.

The complaint for foreclosure also asks a judge to block the Gaugys from moving the painting to which the museum is dedicated, The Awakening. Although the bank does not want to take possession of the painting, the complaint says, it is security for the note and the Gaugys' Web site says indicates it "is in the process of being transferred to another state."

The Awakening Museum's Web site -- theawakeningmuseum.org -- opens with a statement that the museum is closed and "the monumental Awakening artwork is in the process of being transferred to another nonprofit who will be displaying it in a different location (in another state)."

But Michelle Gaugy said the Web site has not been updated since 2006 when the director of a private museum of Bible art in Dallas decided against taking the painting because it was "too modern."

The complaint says the artwork at one time was insured for $3 million, but the Gaugys since have failed to insure it, so the bank has had to pay premiums. It also says the bank told the Gaugys they must maintain burglar alarms but they haven't provided proof of this.

Michelle said Jean-Claude quit paying the insurance premiums when he ceased paying the mortgage, but that she recently reactivated the burglar alarm and has informed the bank of this. She said they have no intention of moving artwork that has been appraised for

$9 million, even though the bank recently changed the locks on the Guadalupe Street building without her permission. She also says Los Alamos National Bank has declined to work with her to resolve the problems brought on by the faltering economy.

"They're sitting there with the attitude that we're trying to run away and cheat them," she said. "This whole idea that I'm going to take this painting down and run away with it is so nuts."

Faith Kalman Reyes, an attorney who filed the complaint for Los Alamos National Bank, did not respond to a message seeking comment on the case.

Jean-Claude Gaugy, who recently closed his studio in the museum, also has not been available for comment. Michelle Gaugy, who met him in California in 1979, said he has not talked to reporters since he was "burned" by a San Francisco television crew who reneged on a promise not to use his comments on "sensitive issues."

According to the museum's Web site, Jean-Claude Gaugy, 65, grew up in a village in the Jura mountains of eastern France, moved to Paris at age 14 and "survived by doing sketches in cafes and soon was invited by the owner of a lavish dining club to paint portraits of customers." After studying art in Europe where he got to know the renowned surrealist Salvador Dali, Gaugy immigrated to the United States in 1966 and settled in Elgood, W. Va., where he began to repair an abandoned high-school gymnasium.

"In 1985, at age 41, the artist, a deeply spiritual man, found himself suddenly filled with an awakened recognition of God's wholeness, which yearned for expression," says the Web site. Thirteen years later, Gaugy completed The Awakening -- depicting Bible stories, Saint Francis of Assisi and "the image of God as light expanding" in his surreal, allegorical style -- on more than 400 wooden panels, totalling nearly 11,000 square feet.

Soon after moving to Santa Fe in 1998, the Gaugys incorporated a nonprofit called The Awakening, purchased the property at the corner of Guadalupe and Johnson streets, and set about mounting the wooden panels on the inside of a Quonset hut erected there in 1948 for a Packard dealership. The building, which in more recent years had been used by a motorcycle dealership and for a nightclub, was remodeled and expanded, taking care not to disturb pre-Columbian burials in the center of the "sanctuary" where the painting is mounted, Michelle Gaugy said.

The Awakening Museum opened in 2002. Donations of $3 per person were sought. The museum shop sold books and other items related to spirituality. And the space was rented for lectures, performances and other events. But it consistently lost money and closed in 2006. An effort to reopen it earlier this year didn't work out.

Michelle Gaugy said she still hopes someone will offer to take over the museum or buy the painting for display elsewhere. "We're actively seeking someone," she said. "We think the museum should live because it's worthwhile."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or [e-mail].