Passengers walk by Romare Bearden's mural, "Pittsburgh Recollections," at the Gateway Port Authority light rail station in Pittsburgh in March. The mural is appraised at $15 million.

PITTSBURGH — A mural in a subway station that is being demolished is worth $15 million, more than the cash-strapped transit agency expected, raising questions about how the artwork should be cared for once it is removed.

"We did not expect it to be that much," Port Authority of Allegheny County spokeswoman Judi McNeil said Thursday. "We don't have the wherewithal to be a caretaker of such a valuable piece."

It would cost the agency more than $100,000 a year to insure the 60-foot-by-13-foot tile mural by Romare Bearden, McNeil said. Bearden was paid $90,000 for the mural, titled "Pittsburgh Recollections." It was installed in 1984.

The subway station that houses the mural is being demolished as part of a $435 million plan to extend the subway. The authority didn't know what it was going to do with the mural but wanted to know its value before taking it down, McNeil said.

The colorful, 780-square-foot mural depicts working men and women and transportation; it is attached to a wall across from the passenger platform. Several tiles show signs of water damage and some tiles close to the track are covered in dirt and grime.

The New York appraiser who set the $15 million figure declined to discuss his valuation on Thursday.

The Port Authority is looking for an arts organization to bear the cost of removing, restoring, relocating and maintaining the mural, McNeil said. If that fails, the agency will either look for an arts group willing to exhibit it or will auction it, she said.

Talk of moving the artwork elsewhere or selling it is premature, said Renee Piechocki, director of the Office of Public Art in Pittsburgh.

Piechocki said her office and the Heinz Endowments have talked with the Port Authority about moving the Bearden piece to the new subway station when it is built.