Mystery solved as massive East Village funeral home ad strangely reappears months after it was erased 

A decades-old East Village funeral home ad that was sandblasted into oblivion last year has been magically resurrected — and the mystery funder says he just wanted to pay homage to a piece of New York City history, The Post has learned. 

The 40-foot advert for Peter Jarema Funeral Home loomed over the now-trendy lower Manhattan neighborhood, its aging lettering barely legible against the faded white painted background.

The throwback mural had remained in place in its shabby-chic state as a quiet, anachronistic nod to simpler times, even as much of the East Village modernized around it.

But last June, the five-story building at 108 Avenue B and Seventh Street underwent extensive exterior renovations, during which the painted-on original was stripped from the façade.

Then on Friday, neighborhood blog EV Grieve spotted workers affixing a massive brand-new white canvas banner to the north-facing wall in the exact spot where original had been painted on.

The updated sign, attached to the building via ropes and metal-reinforced grommets, touts the funeral home’s services and highlights its founding in 1906, directing passersby to its location a block up the street.

The Post was able to reach the benefactor, who turned out to be an ad exec who agreed to speak only if his name wasn’t made public.

He said he was motivated by his love for classic New York signs when he approached Peter Jarema Funeral Home owner Danny Buzzetta with the idea to restore the ad.

“The fact that the business has been there as long as it has is something that you don’t see every day in New York, and I thought it would be a cool play to put them up,” the adman said.

“What better way to pay homage to the ad that’s been there for that long than to put [a new one] up there?”

The stranger downplayed the cost of placing the ad as “a couple grand” a month, “nothing major,” and said he expected it would stay up at least until April before being switched out.

But, he left open the possibility that the funeral home ad would go back up during slow months.

It’s not clear how long the Peter Jarema Funeral Home’s sign graced the building before it was destroyed; a New York Historical Society photo from the 1940s showed a different ad in the same spot.

The new of version of the ad notably omits some of the kitschier old-school elements of the original, including offering “air conditioned chapels” and a phone number with an alphanumeric exchange name (OR 4-2568), a system that was phased out by the late 1960s.

Buzzetta, 40, told The Post he was contacted by a man he didn’t know who was interested in restoring the sign.

“As a skeptical New Yorker I was like, yeah right, this ain’t going up. Who gives out free signs of this size?”

Buzzetta told the stranger, whom he only ever spoke to by phone or text, that he didn’t really need the 40-foot-by-12-foot wallscape ad — nor did he have the money to pay for it.

“I made it clear, I’m like look, I appreciate the thought, but if you’re going to hit me with a bill afterwards…”

Buzzetta said the man insisted he wanted no money, so he told him to proceed with his blessing, admitting he doubted it would ever actually happen.

“I honestly thought there’d be a snafu somewhere, a price tag comes in, he realizes ‘holy sh–, I’m not paying $10,000 for a sign!’ I assumed it would never go up.”

Buzzetta all but forgot about the sign until somebody texted him a photo of the crisp new banner back in the spot the ad had always been.

“I was like ‘he actually went through with it,’ I had nothing to do with it going up, I have no idea what it cost, and God knows when it comes down.

‘I was very thankful to the gentleman who set this up, and we’ll just see where it goes.”

However, Buzzetta admitted the sign made little difference for his business in the era of Google.

“This kind of advertising’s not going to do much for me as a funeral home. Like, you need me when you need me. You don’t need me on a week-to-week basis, you need me when the time comes,” he said.

“You’re not walking by 7th Street and Avenue B going ‘Oh, look, there’s a funeral home there.’”

As for the likelihood of the ad being back in place only intermittently, Buzzetta was unbothered.

“If it disappears in a week, look, it didn’t cost me going up and it won’t cost me going down.”