The mural, funded by the WPA (Works Project Administration), was controversial especially because of the depictions of nudity and references to war in the central panel. The central panel was removed from the Frank Wiggins Trade School lobby (now LA Trade Tech) and returned to the Public Works Administration in 1935 and the other two panels were returned in 1939.
Another photograph of Atanas Katchmakoff, with this sculpture, with his attorney Saul Ruskin, and art expert Dr. Ernest L. Tross appears in a Los Angeles Times article on 4/17/1935 titled: "Worth of Statue Debated: Value of Lost Madonna Estimated in Cost Case." At this time Katchmakoff sued Fred Keeler, the owner of the foundry that cast his Madonna sculpture for losing the plaster original. Two bronze sculptures had been made, but the owner of the bronze Madonnas had refused to allow his bronzes to be used to produce a new plaster cast.
