Rain returned to the Hocken Library yesterday.
Dunedin artist Ralph Hotere's 5m-long three-panel work Rain was reinstalled in the library's foyer. It was last on display in 2011.
It took a team of about 10 Hocken and University of Otago staff members more than 30 minutes to hang the three panels.
The artwork was commissioned by the university in 1979 to be displayed in the then recently completed Hocken Building, now the Richardson Building, where the panels hung for nearly 30 years.
They were removed in 2007 because of concerns about their condition, and replicas were installed in their place.
Since then, the originals have been stored by the Hocken, first on campus then at the Anzac Ave building, where they were restored and conserved.
Hocken Collections pictorial head curator Robyn Notman said as the conservation process had finished, the artwork could be displayed again.
It also coincided with the 60th anniversary of the university's Robert Burns Fellowship in September.
The artwork was inspired by poet Hone Tuwhare, who was a close friend of Hotere's and himself a Burns fellow.
The banners were likely to be on display until mid-2019, which would also coincide with the university's 150th anniversary celebrations.
