Long-lost mural from Queens Howard Johnson’s recovered after 50 years — in Massachusetts basement

A long-lost mural that once adorned an iconic Queens restaurant has finally been brought home — fifty years after it seemingly vanished into thin air.

The sprawling, 39-foot Andre Durenceau masterpiece, long thought to have been destroyed when the Howard Johnson’s in Queens was torn down, had been quietly living for decades in a Massachusetts basement.

“Many preservationists thought the mural was demolished, but I was searching for it for many, many years,” Michael Perlman, founder of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, told The Post.

Perlman, 42, was operating on little more than hope that the mural had somehow survived when he was called last month to make a 500-mile trip to rescue the long-lost art piece from the cellar of a former restaurant executive.

The unnamed Art Deco artwork — which depicts several dancing women and horses jumping through ribbon-like hoops — had been the centerpiece of the HoJo’s rotunda in Rego Park for some 40 years.

French-born artist Durenceau had been commissioned to replicate his imagery and style from his other pieces, specifically from the paintings he crafted for the futuristic 1939 Worlds’ Fair, which took place just 2 miles from the mid-Queens restaurant.

Despite the mural being a well-loved staple of the community, there seemed to be little interest in saving it when the Gregorian-style building was ordered to be leveled in 1974 — clearing the way for former executive Hugh Kelly to claim the artwork.

“Realizing the uniqueness of the mural, I asked the construction VP if there were any plans to save the mural. His response was ‘No, but feel free to remove it if you want it,’” Kelly, 90, said, according to Perlman.

The former executive and his then-teenage sons carefully tore down the Durenceau original from the plaster wall, rolled it into three separate sections on carpet rollers and carried it to the family’s home in Weston, Massachusetts, where it remained relatively untouched for five decades.

Throughout the last half-century, Kelly had no idea it was considered a lost mural — and didn’t even know who the painter was.

It surfaced last month when Kelly decided to offload the artwork and called in a keen-eyed appraiser — who immediately recognized the familiar Art Deco style and nods to the 1939 World’s Fair.

In researching the artwork, Brett Downer stumbled upon Perlman’s blogs and book, “Legendary Locals of Forest Hills and Rego Park” — which chronicled his hunt for Durenceau’s paintings.

“I thought the best thing was to see if we could get them to go back home,” Downer told The Post.

“The value is going back where they belong. People can revisit 1939 in a sense, by seeing them when they’re installed somewhere.”

The mural itself is worth several thousand dollars, Downer estimates, but would require upwards of $30,000 in restoration costs.

The three cases were kept in “well preserved” condition, he continued, but five decades in an arid basement have taken a clear toll on the paintings.

Kelly ultimately decided to donate the mural to Perlman on the condition the preservationist facilitate bringing the mural back to the Big Apple — a mission Perlman was eager to accept.

With just 24 hours notice, Perlman organized two movers and friend Alan McIntyre to join him on a single-day, 500-mile round trip on Sept. 22 to pick up the mural and bring it back to a secure storage facility east of Queens.

They also brought back several other HoJo artifacts bequeathed by Kelly, including a “Landmark for Hungry Americans” sign, a framed nationwide restaurant map and three sets of letters that were salvaged from varied size trucks that once transported food and supplies to HoJo locations.

“It was miraculous how something so rare and beautiful that I was searching for came to me. It feels as if the spirit of Andre Durenceau is grateful, as well, and was communicating with me,” Perlman said.

In an ideal world, Perlman would love to see the mural resurrected in a replica of the Rego Park Howard Johnson’s, which he believes should have been landmarked to save it from demolition.

But because that dream is admittedly far-fetched, Perlman hopes to broker a deal with a Queens-based museum or gallery that would finance restoration and give the mural a permanent home.

The Queens Museum is at the top of his list, considering the building was erected for the very same World’s Fair that Durenceau provided his artwork for.

“I love the five boroughs, I love anything beautiful and meaningful in history,” said Perlman.

“I always say creativity is the cultivation of our soul and I feel it’s very, very important for younger generations to be imaginative and simultaneously master the art of overall art and craftsman, otherwise it’s lost forever — like the mural almost was.”