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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Nina Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 12:09 PM To: AFTAADV-l (E-mail); [log in to unmask] org (E-mail) Subject: NYC ordered to restore Arts Funding to Brooklyn Museum! To: Americans for the Arts ADVOCACY listserv members Fr: Nina Ozlu, Americans for the Arts Dt: November 1, 1999 Re: Federal Court decision on Brooklyn Case -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Federal District Court in Brooklyn filed its decision at 11:17 this morning, ordering NYC and Mayor Giuliani to restore funds to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. As outlined in Jim Fitzpatrick's paper, the court found that Mayor Giuliani and city officials are prohibited from "taking steps to inflict any punishment, retaliation, discrimination or sanction" against the museum for the exhibit that opened last month, called "Sensation." Today's AP story is below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - NYC Ordered To Restore Art Funding By TOM HAYS Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge ordered the city today to restore millions of dollars to the Brooklyn Museum of Art that was cut off in a dispute over a controversial art exhibit. U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon, in a 40-page opinion filed this morning in Brooklyn federal court, granted the museum's request for a preliminary injunction against the city. She concluded that the museum ``has established irreparable harm and a likelihood of success on its First Amendment claim.'' Gershon's order bars Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and city officials from ``taking steps to inflict any punishment, retaliation, discrimination or sanction'' against the museum for the exhibit that opened last month, called ``Sensation.'' Neither museum or city officials had any immediate comment. The museum sued the city last month, claiming its First Amendment rights had been violated by Giuliani's decision to freeze a $7.2 million subsidy -- about a third of its annual budget. It sought the injunction to restore funds until the legal dispute could be settled. The art war broke out at a Sept. 22 news conference, when the mayor called the exhibit of works by young British artists -- which features a portrait of the Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung -- ``sick,'' sacrilegious and unworthy of taxpayer support. After the museum refused to cancel the show, the city withheld a $497,554 payment for October, then sued in state court to evict the museum from a city-owned site it has leased for more than 100 years. Museum supporters have likened the city's reaction to a book burning. At a hearing before Gershon, museum attorney Floyd Abrams accused the city of trying to punish free speech. "The behavior of the city is a First Amendment catastrophe," Abrams said. The city and Giuliani are attacking the museum ``for doing nothing more than exercising its constitutional rights.'' City attorneys countered that the Constitution has nothing to do with it. They argued the museum broke its contract with the city, thereby creating grounds for eviction. Its lease requires the museum -- which contains the second largest art collection in the country -- to educate schoolchildren and the general public. Museum supporters have accused Giuliani -- the likely Republican nominee for U.S. Senate next year -- of pandering to conservative voters. City officials allege the museum board of directors, British collector Charles Saatchi and sponsor, Christie's auction house, of trying to cash in on work by modern artists whose sole aim is to shock. Aside from the portrait of the Virgin Mary decorated with elephant dung, the show includes mannequins with genitals as facial features, a glass tank featuring a fake cow's head and 20,000 live maggots and farm animals bisected and displayed in formaldehyde. The exhibit has drawn large crowds. AP-NY-11-01-99 1117EST