NEW YORK (AP) -- Decades after disappearing from public view, a mural depicting Neanderthal men and women is set to bring prehistory to life for another generation of visitors at the American Museum of Natural History.
``The Neanderthal Flint Workers,'' by renowned artist Charles Knight, is scheduled to be reinstalled Wednesday morning in the Manhattan museum.
The 12-foot-by-8-foot mural was completed in 1926. It was one of nine murals displayed in the museum's Hall of the Age of Man and stayed there until the 1960s. The hall closed in 1966.
The mural was in storage until a couple of years ago, said Stephen Quinn, senior project manager in the museum's Department of Exhibition. It will be rehung near the entrance to the Hall of Human Origins, which opened last year, he said.
Knight's works, rooted in solid science about the subjects he portrayed, are ``recognized as, really, windows into the past,'' Quinine said.
``Having these things in the museum's collection and not making them available to the public is like having a priceless gem and not exhibiting it,'' he said.
Knight, who also drew dinosaurs and other animals, had a long association with the museum. His works also are in the collections of the Field Museum in Chicago and other institutions around the country.
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