BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The University of Idaho will keep two murals inside the old Ada County Courthouse covered for the grand opening of its new campus in July.

KIVI-TV reports the murals depicting white settlers lynching a Native American is part of a large painting spread throughout the old courthouse. The University of Idaho, which is leasing out the building as a satellite campus for its law school, has no interest in keeping the mural on display.

"They're the fevered imagination of a Southern California artist and have no connection to the history of Idaho, and at all levels they're inappropriate," said Lee Dillion, associate dean of the college. "People that are interested in seeing (the murals), we'll make sure they're displayed under controlled circumstances. But otherwise those two murals will be covered."

The murals show an Indian in buckskin breeches, on his knees with his hands bound behind his back. He is flanked by a man holding a rifle and another armed man holding the end of a noose dangling from a tree.

Twenty-six murals were painted in Southern California and mounted in the courthouse in 1940.

Former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy is cautious about any plans to remove the murals.

"Nobody today wants to promote racial difficulty or mob rule," he said. "However, in art we do need to regard things carefully when we use today's standards to judge yesterday's images. That's called 'presentism,' and that can lead to problems."

University of Idaho officials said it would cost up to a million dollars to properly remove the murals.

The building's grand opening is planned for July 6, and classes begin in August.