Artist Mary Miss has filed a lawsuit in an ongoing dispute over the planned demolition of her outdoor installation Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996) at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. 

A district court subsequently decided to issue a temporary restraining order against the institution’s plans, which were to be enacted on April 8th of this year. 

Miss, who is considered a leading figure of the Land Art movement, filed the legal challenge after The Cultural Landscape Foundation divulged the Art Center’s “secret plans” to deconstruct and remove the installation from its grounds over the deterioration of its materials and presumed adversity of potential repairs.

Miss is alleging a breach of contract as part of the suit, citing a 1994 agreement and seeking damages through a reading of the Visual Artists Rights Act (or VARA), a piece of federal legislation held over from the heydey of America's culture wars that forbids “destruction of a work of recognized stature, and any intentional or grossly negligent destruction of that work” expressly. 

As ARTnews explained, the potential for demolition “brought up questions over how museums contend with preservation needs as their boards and directors change their missions.”

Indeed, the dispute reflects much of the concerns latent in the recent back-and-forth over the removal of Elyn Zimmerman’s 1984 Marabar sculpture (which was eventually re-installed under a new title on the campus of American University). 

A hearing to determine the lawsuit's standing will be held later this month. In a statement, Miss said, “The Art Center Board and Director’s lack of consultation, disregard of their contractual obligations, and shameful treatment of the artwork have forced this issue into the courts. They have only themselves to blame for this avoidable scandal.”