Fats Domino's Piano Cleaned, Moved to Cabildo

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A team of five conservators worked 12-hour days for more than a week to clean Fats Domino's mold-covered black Steinway grand.

It was one of three pianos pulled from the rock and roll pioneer's flood-damaged Ninth Ward home in March.

The piano has been moved to the Cabildo, a historic New Orleans building that is part of the Louisiana State Museum system. It had been ridded of the mud and mold left by Hurricane Katrina's floodwater but was kept on its side with one leg detached, just as researchers found it.

The piano will be part of a temporary exhibit of National Geographic photographs and Katrina remnants running from August tenth through December 31st at the Louisiana State Museum.

The piano along with rescue signs, photographs and oral histories, will be part of a permanent Katrina exhibit slated for opening in January of 2008.