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Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc. v. Christoph Büchel, U.S. District of Massachusetts, Case 3:07-cv-30089-MAP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2008

Anastasia Telesetsky
Anastasia Telesetsky
Affiliation:
Briscoe Ivester Bazel LLP. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

On September 25, 2007, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) won its declaratory judgment case against Swiss artist Christoph Büchel and potentially set additional Visual Artist Rights Act (VARA) precedent. Judge Ponsor agreed that Büchel's unfinished work Training Ground for Democracy was not protected by VARA. Artists cried foul. Journalists excoriated the museum with incendiary comments in the New York Times art section such as “the museum deserves to be scathed.”Smith, “Is it Art Yet? And Who Decides?” Why did an artistic disagreement end up ensnared in a relatively nasty legal “custody” battle?

Type
CASE NOTE
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 87 - 95
Copyright
© 2008 International Cultural Property Society

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References

Benfey, Christopher. “Mess MoCA: An Artist and a Museum Fight Over A Work of Art.” Slate. www.slate.com/id/2174656/ (accessed January 17, 2008).
Crow, Kelly. “It's Yahoo's Lawn, But this Artist Says Keep Off the Grass.” Wall Street Journal Online. Page One. http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB119101266764543043.html (accessed October 1, 2007).
Edgers, Geoff. “Mass MoCA to Dismantle Unseen Exhibit.” Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/09/26/mass_moca_to_dismantle_unseen_exhibit (accessed September 26, 2007).
Herrmann, Andrew. “‘Wildflower Works I’: Park District May Have to Pay Artist Damages.” Chicago Sun-Times. http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/576718,CST-NWS-wildflowers27.article (accessed September 27, 2007).
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Lufkin, Martha. “Mass MoCA Dismantles Artist's Unfinished Installation.” The Art Newspaper. www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=4565 (accessed September 27, 2007).
Smith, Roberta. “Is it Art Yet? And Who Decides?” New York Times. www.nytimes.com (accessed September 16, 2007).