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THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 1988

Follow-Up on the News

Trying to Move A Wall of Art

IT IS infinitely simpler to commission a work of art than it is to remove one after it has been installed, The Federal Government is learning. 

The art in question, "Tilted Arc," a sculpture by Richard Serra, was installed in Federal Plaza in Manhattan in 1981 with the approval of the General Services Administration. But amid complaints that the art -- a 12-foot-high, 120-foot-long steel wall -- limited access to the plaza, 7,000 workers petitioned for its removal. 

With democratic fervor, the G.S.A.'s regional administrator in New York, William J. Diamond, declared in 1985: "The people have spoken, and they have been listened to by their Government."

Not by Mr. Serra, however. 

He sued the Federal agency to block the removal of his sculpture, saying, "To relocate the work is to destroy it." He lost last September in Federal District Court in Manhattan but has appealed. 

Meanwhile, a committee appointed by the National Endowment for the Arts to help relocate the sculpture has recommended that the artwork stay right where it is. 

Where does that leave "Tilted Arc"?

"It's sort of in a vacuum," says Charles Degliomini, an assistant to Mr. Diamond. 

The General Services Administration is waiting for the United States Court of Appeals to rule on Mr. Serra's appeal before it makes any further decisions about the sculpture, Mr. Degliomini says. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1988

Federal Judge Rules on 'Arc'

By DOUGLAS C. McGILL

Efforts by the General Services Administration in New York to remove "Tilted Arc," the sculpture by Richard Serra in a plaza in downtown Manhattan, do not deprive the artist of his right to free speech and to due process of law, a Federal judge has ruled. 

The ruling came in a decision last Friday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Last fall, Mr. Serra appealed a decision, by Judge Milton Pollack of the United States District Court in Manhattan, that the Government's efforts to remove the work did not violate his rights. 

"We believe that the First Amendment has only limited application in a case like the present one where the artistic expression belongs to the Government rather than a private individual," wrote Justices Jon O. Newman, Amalya L. Kearse and Miriam G. Cedarbaum, in Friday's decision. "Government can be a significant patron of the arts. Its incentive to fulfill that role must not be dampened by unwarranted restrictions on its freedom to decide what to do with the art it has purchased."

The sculpture, a sweeping steel wall that bisects the plaza in front of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building at 26 Federal Plaza, was commissioned by the General Services Administration and installed in 1981. In 1984 William Diamond, the regional administrator of the GSA, announced that he might have the work removed because it obstructed the plaza. In 1985, following a public hearing on the matter, the agency recommended that the work be removed. 

In his suit against the Government, Mr. Serra also claimed that the three-day hearing, before a five-member panel named by Mr. Diamond, was biased, and that his rights to due process were violated. 

In last week's decision, the Federal justices ruled that "pursuant to Serra's contract, the sculpture is the property of GSA, not the artist," and that "even if Diamond was not entirely impartial, Serra received more process than what was due." 

Jay Topkis, an attorney for Mr. Serra, said yesterday that the artist was out of the country and could not be reached for comment. He said that Mr. Serra had not yet determined whether to proceed with another appeal, which would take the form of a request to the United States Supreme Court to review the case. 

THE FRESH AIR FUND: 1877-1988