Sunday, August 16, 2009

"The dispute raises questions about the obligation of a state government with finite resources to uphold the artistic vision of a public memorial"

Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento spots a threatened VARA suit in Washington State involving a World War II memorial sculpture. According to a local news report, artist Simon Kogan "says that overaggressive cleaning in May 2007 damaged the memorial .... He has demanded that the state agency fix the damage or he will sue."

On that way of framing the issue, one problem Kogan faces under VARA is section 106A(c)(2): "The modification of a work of visual art which is the result of conservation ... is not a destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification described in subsection (a)(3) unless the modification is caused by gross negligence."