5-9 should run (timely news)

$1 MILLION AWARDED TO ARTIST OF PAINTED-OVER MURAL IN L.A.

AVV 5-5 #738233

 

By Jacob Adelman

Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A muralist reached a $1.1 million legal settlement with defendants accused of painting over his large-scale portrait of artist Ed Ruscha on a government-owned building that houses a US Labor Department jobs program, the muralist’s lawyer said.

The US government and the Labor Department will together pay $250,000 of muralist Ken Twitchell’s settlement, perhaps the largest payout in a case concerning state and federal laws that require artists to be notified before their works are destroyed, attorney Bill Brutocao said.

The balance will come from 11 other companies and individuals hired by the Labor Department to operate and maintain the Los Angeles Jobs Corps Center, including the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles, which administers the facility, and Poway-based contractor West Coast General Corp., Brutocao said.

Brutocao said the terms of the settlement bar him from revealing how much each non-governmental defendant will pay.

“It’s been almost two years of battle over this issue and it takes a lot out of you,” said Twitchell, who finished his 70-foot portrait of his fellow artist in 1987. “I just feel mostly relieved and good that we were able to stay the course.”

Twitchell began painting the mural at the YWCA’s invitation in 1978, Brutocao said. It was covered with a coat of primer in June 2006 during repairs to the building’s concrete edifice, he said.

Los Angeles attorney Christine Steiner, who practices art-related law, said she was aware of no larger payout to an artist under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act or the California Art Preservation Act.

The statutes prohibit the destruction of certain works of public art without notifying artists 90 days in advance so they can arrange to have the artworks moved.

“This is a high price tag for a public arts settlement, absolutely,” she said. “What it says more than anything is that art is a different type of property under the law. Most laws are concerned with economic and property rights. These laws are concerned with personal rights.”

The Labor Department said in a printed statement that the agency “acted promptly and responsibly to attempt to resolve the situation” when it learned of the damage.

“Clearly there was a problem that occurred in relation to the mural and it seems that the artist is pleased with the result of this litigation,” said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office, which represented the federal government and Labor Department.

Messages left with YWCA chief executive Faye Washington and West Coast General were not immediately returned.