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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
Affiliation:
Briscoe Ivester Bazel LLP. Email: atelesetsky@briscoelaw.net

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
Copyright
© 2008 International Cultural Property Society

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References

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