‘An unsatisfying status quo’: art centre can neither demolish artist Mary Miss’s outdoor installation nor be forced to repair it, judge rules

In a statement, Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and chief executive of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a non-profit based in Washington, DC, that has been campaigning for the preservation of Miss’s environment, said: “Though the court stated that the artwork is not really a sculpture and does not fall within the definition of ‘sculpture’ under Vara, we expect that expert testimony at trial—if it gets to that point—will establish that Land art is sculpture (e.g., Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty) and especially that this land art, Greenwood Pond: Double Site, was accessioned into DMAC’s permanent collection as a sculpture.”