Last May, London graffiti artist Banksy painted a mural now known
as “Slave Labour” on a wall in the borough of Haringey in London. The work was
mysteriously ripped out of the wall and put up for auction in Florida at Fine
Art Auctions Miami with a value listed at $500,000 to $700,000. After much public outcry,
the auction house withdrew the work before the sale. A recent article in New
York Times, “Borough searches for missing boy, last seen on wall” hints at the
question of who owns the art and what are the artist’s or the public’s moral
rights.
Read more about “The Story Behind Banksy” in February’s Smithsonian magazine.
Moral rights, which include an artist’s right to the protect
attribution and the integrity of his or her work, are delineated in an evolving
area of the law.
Internationally, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was first adopted
in 1886, and most recently revised in 1971.
The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), 17 U.S.C. § 106A, was the first federal copyright legislation in
the United Stated to grant protection for moral rights.
The 1984 Massachusetts Art Preservation Act (MAPA), M.G.L. c. 231 § 85s , states “The general court hereby
finds and declares that the physical alternation or destruction of fine art,
which is an expression of the artist’s personality, is detrimental to the
artist’s reputation, and artists therefore have an interest in protecting their
works of fine art against such alteration or destruction; and that there is
also a public interest in preserving the integrity of cultural and artistic
creations.”
