Legal records relating to Richard Serra v. United States General Services Administration et al, 1985-1988

Collection Information

Size: 4 Linear feet

Summary: Legal records and other papers, 1985-1988, of Assistant New York State Attorney General Gustave Harrow, assembled in his service as legal counsel to sculptor Richard Serra in the matter of Richard Serra v. United States General Services Administration, et. al., including Harrow's correspondence; proceedings of the 1985 public hearing to decide whether Serra's 1981 sculpture Tilted Arc commissioned by the GSA for the Federal Plaza in New York City should be relocated; copies of legal affidavits, complaints, memoranda and points of law, opinions, subpoenas, dispositions, and other documents; research on copyright, torts, trademark cases, not-for-profit corporations, and other topics; printed material about Tilted Arc; a Tilted Arc chronology of events; copies of installation documents; a VHS video recording from Tokyo Broadcasting System, 1985; and miscellany.

Biographical/Historical Note

Gustave Harrow served as Richard Serra's attorney in his unsuccessful lawsuit to block the Federal Government's removal of his site-specific sculpture Tilted Arc commissioned by the Art-in-Architecture program of the General Services Administration for the Federal Plaza in New York City. A public hearing was held in 1985, and a decision handed down by Dwight Ink of the GSA, establishing a panel to consider alternative sites for the sculpture. In 1986, Serra filed a lawsuit to prevent the GSA from removing Tilted Arc.The lawsuit was dismissed in 1987. Serra filed an appeal in 1988. The sculpture was removed on March 15, 1989.

Provenance

Donated 1997 by the widow of Gustave Harrow, Laurie Harrow.

Language Note

English .