A nonprofit overseeing Manhattan’s Elizabeth Avenue Backyard is suing New York Metropolis, arguing that the coveted public house qualifies for authorized safety artwork underneath the Visible Artists Rights Act (VARA) of 1990. The lawsuit, filed early this month by the backyard’s director Joseph Reiver, is looking for to dam town’s plan to switch the backyard with inexpensive housing, describing the Soho web site as a “social sculpture.”
Reiver’s father, the late gallerist Allan Reiver, started remodeling the then-abandoned lot thirty years in the past right into a group house, and eventual sculpture backyard. Now, Joseph Reiver contends that the backyard ought to be shielded from destruction underneath the 1990 legislation, which is imply to guard works of “acknowledged stature” from being deliberately destroyed throughout redevelopments.
The lawsuit follows contradicting authorized precedents. In 2018, a decide awarded $6.75 million to road artists after builders whitewashed murals at Queens’ 5Pointz. But VARA’s attain has limits: Artist Mary Miss failed to stop the Des Moines Artwork Heart from demolishing her land artwork piece, although she in the end secured a $900,000 settlement.
The combat over the Elizabeth Avenue Backyard has drawn help from New York Metropolis figures together with Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Patti Smith. The town argues its Haven Inexperienced challenge—which would offer 123 inexpensive items for seniors, with an intention of 30% of the house be reserved for previously homeless people—seeks to alleviate the neighborhood’s inexpensive housing disaster.
With eviction proceedings on maintain, an finish to the dispute is out of sight. Reiver insists the backyard’s destruction is pointless, arguing in courtroom paperwork that the event challenge is about securing the land underneath new possession moderately than addressing group wants.
