Visual Artists Rights Act Analyzing the Moral Right of the Artist and the Public

Abstract

Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, a controversial piece of public art, was inconspicuously taken down by the United States General Services Administration. The Cor-ten steel arc was dismantled and placed in a storage warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. A year and a half later, the United States Congress passed the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), protecting artists and their work from public destruction. Because an artist's identity is associated with the work itself, the destruction or modification of work in public spaces is now protected by law. The question is posed, would Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, have been protected if the controversy began after the enactment of the Visual Artists Rights Act? This paper will look at both sides of the enacted law, and whether the law is beneficial to public as well as the artist.