Artist Mary Miss and the Des Moines Art Center (DMAC) in Iowa have reached a settlement on a lawsuit regarding the museum’s move to deaccession Miss’s environmental artwork “Greenwood Pond: Double Site” (1989–96) without the artist’s approval after the work deteriorated considerably.
The settlement reached this week outlines that DMAC will pay Miss a total of $900,000 in exchange for the artist’s release and dismissal of all claims against the museum, and that DMAC may proceed with the demolition of Miss’s artwork.
The center commissioned Miss to develop the project in the surrounding Greenwood Park in 1989 as a part of its permanent collection. It took almost seven years and many helping hands for Miss to complete “Greenwood Pond: Double Site,” a work of land art that intentionally guided visitors throughout different levels of the pond’s wetland ecology using a variety of designed landscape features along the water’s edge.
Primarily made from wood and concrete, Miss’s work deteriorated over time and landed on the TCLF’s list of vulnerable environmental artworks in 2014. Together, DMAC and the city of Des Moines committed $1.4 million for its repair in 2015, only for the artwork to decay once again…