Repairs are expected later this summer to the Sculpture Clock in Peavey Plaza, a longtime fixture on Nicollet Mall, which has been broken since early spring.

KCI Conservation, a Twin Cities-based art conservation firm, already inspected the damage and got its proposal approved by the Minneapolis Arts Commission. The timeline of the clock’s latest restoration depends on the conservator’s schedule, but repairs will hopefully begin in the next month or so.

The City’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Department expects to allocate about $23,000 from its annual maintenance budget for repairs to the Sculpture Clock, according to Public Arts Coordinator Talia Moorman.

Several months ago, the clock was accidentally damaged by someone who rolled a nearby metal garbage can into the intersection and launched its lid into the clock’s glass base, where all of its moving parts are located, Moorman told Downtown Voices. The clock was then shut down, cleared of broken glass, and boarded up with plywood for safety.

The City plans to put a banner around the plywood soon to prevent graffiti and remind people what the Sculpture Clock looks like.

The Sculpture Clock is the oldest piece in the City’s public art collection.

In the mid-’60s, the Minneapolis Downtown Council commissioned New York-based artist Jack Nelson to create a kinetic clock sculpture for the City, ahead of Nicollet Mall’s completion. The City paid $9,480 for the artwork.

The Sculpture Clock was installed at Ninth Street and Nicollet in 1968 and moved to its current location at 11th and Nicollet by Peavey Plaza in 1991. The kinetic portion stopped moving in 2002 after the City decided its upkeep was too costly. The Sculpture Clock was uninstalled in 2015 before Nicollet Mall was revamped, then it was taken to KCI Conservation for restoration. It returned in its full glory to Nicollet Mall in 2017.

The Sculpture Clock is 16 feet tall and made up of more than 500 individual parts. Read more about its history here.