Pryor Cashman Partner Megan Noh, co-chair of the Art Law Group and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Practice, spoke to The New York Times following a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision involving a Vermont college and depictions of slavery in on-campus murals.
In "Law School That Covered Slavery Murals Didn't Violate Artist's Rights, Court Rules," Megan commented on the ruling in Samuel Kerson v. Vermont Law School, Inc., which said that the school could conceal 30-year-old murals in the student center.
Megan noted that this latest decision, allowing the school to conceal the murals rather than remove them, was in line with typical applications of the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), which describes artists' "moral rights" involving their artwork:
The artists' rights do have to be balanced with those of the real property owners, and this subset of VARA-protected works that are installed and cannot be removed without destruction requires a special balancing act.
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Resources
- [The New York Times] Law School That Covered Slavery Murals Didn't Violate Artist's Rights, Court Rules
- Noh Comments on Vermont College Murals Litigation
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