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Page: 7A
A mildewy painting found in the Scottish countryside weeks after the young artist was killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 has been restored and put on display in her hometown.
The London architectural scene was one of the last paintings by Gretchen Dater, who was carrying it home from London when she died Dec. 21 in the explosion over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed all 259 people aboard.
The oil painting is part of a collection of Dater's works on display at the Ramsey Free Public Library in this New York City suburb.
''I'm so grateful that we have the Lockerbie painting," said her mother, Joan Dater.
''But tomorrow's going to be rough," her father, Tom Dater, said Tuesday. "She would have been 21 tomorrow."
Dater, a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, was returning home with many of her artworks after a semester in London in a Syracuse University program, Tom Dater said. None of the other paintings has been found.
The painting, signed on the back by Dater, was found in January about 20 miles from Lockerbie.
A Syracuse University art instructor traveled to London to identify the painting.
The mildewy canvas was restored and put on display with other works by Dater last month. The exhibit runs through the end of May.
''I try to look at it as celebrating Gretchen's life," Dater's mother said recently. "Her essence is in all her art. . . . I try very hard to imagine Gretchen still being with us in spirit."
For more on Gretchen Dater and the 1998-memorial exhibition press HERE