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Giuliani Gives Billionaires
$67 Million for Art Museum

by Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
November 29, 2000

[See below: Daily News 11/29/2000
Rudy Has His Art Set on E. River Museum]

No New Yorker should imagine that Mayor Giuliani, aka "The Enemy Of Art", is trying to promote culture by backing a new art museum on the East River. This is the same Mayor who has ordered hundreds of artists illegally arrested, who has had more original art confiscated and destroyed than Adolf Hitler and who submitted an appeal brief to the US Supreme Court in 1997 seeking to eliminate First Amendment protection for all visual art.

His 1977 appeal brief stated:
"An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech, literature or live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional interest is thus minimal." -Giuliani appeal brief against street artists having First Amendment protection, Giuliani v Lederman et al and Giuliani v Bery et al, filed with the U.S.Supreme Court 2/24/97.

Elizabeth Freedman, an attorney speaking on behalf of the N.Y.C. Corporation Counsel's office [Mayor Giuliani's 680 lawyers-yes, he needs that many] explained the City's anti-art position during a radio interview. "Visual art...does not express ideas", Ms. Friedman said, "and as such is not entitled to First Amendment protection." 2/24/97 radio interview WNYC's syndicated business news show, "Marketplace".
[Click here for an expose on the Corporation Counsel].

The past seven years of the Giuliani administration has been notable for featuring more persecution of artists, more censorship of museums and more violations of the First Amendment than the entire previous 335 years of NYC history. As in all things Giuliani, this is nothing more than another badly disguised effort on behalf of his favorite real estate developers. If as has been suggested Mayor Jailiani wants a monumental symbol of his "legacy", why not build another jail to replace the sweltering rat-infested Central Booking dungeon below 100 Centre Street through which hundreds of thousands of falsely-arrested people are processed each year? He could have it decorated for free with the paintings illegally confiscated from the City's street artists, few of which have ever been returned.

Do the billionaires on the board of the Guggenheim need a $67 million donation from NYC taxpayers to build their latest fake art museum/tourist souvenir store? About as much as the Rockefeller family needed the $65 million Giuliani gave them in 1998 to renovate their museum/tourist gift shop and collection of Nazi-confiscated paintings.

Let the Guggenheim pay for its own museum. Like MOMA (the Rockefeller's Museum of Modern Art), which recently had Giuliani eliminate freedom of expression on 53rd Street by restricting the street 24 hours a day seven days a week to street artists, the Guggenheim museum branch in SoHo has been at the forefront alongside Mayor Giuliani in violating the very same artistic freedoms they pretend to be promoting.

All artists, art collectors and museum goers should boycott all branches of both the Guggenheim and MOMA until they take a stand on behalf of artistic freedom in NYC, the so-called Art and Culture Capital of the World.
Click here for the street artist court cases and history.

Daily News 11/29/2000

Rudy Has His Art Set on E. River Museum

By LISA L. COLANGELO Daily News Staff Writer

For Mayor Giuliani, a new Guggenheim Museum on the East River would be a sparkling jewel in the crown of the world's cultural capital.

It wouldn't be a bad personal legacy, either.

But to some downtown activists, it's an ambitious plan that will block their views and steal their waterfront. "Can you imagine being along the East River and not being able to see the Brooklyn Bridge?"said Madelyn Wils, chairwoman of Community Board 1.

The proposed museum, a $678million structure on top of the East River, features a 40-foot tower, sculpture gardens, a performing arts center and more than 300,000 square feet for exhibitions.

Museum officials said the Guggenheim's landmark Fifth Ave. structure, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, would remain in operation, focusing on art from the Impressionist period through the first half of the 20th century. The new museum would feature contemporary art, installations and a center for architecture and design.

Giuliani said yesterday the city will provide $67.8 million for the project. That includes city-owned land at Piers 9, 13 and 14, just below the South Street Seaport.

"This is the best project for this area. It's going to add something very, very unique to downtown Manhattan,"Giuliani said. "Whereas the other projects all would have been good, they wouldn't have done as much for the economy."

Guggenheim officials said the new museum would provide more than 2,000 jobs — and $14 million in city tax revenues and $280 million in economic activity annually.

Wils said the community board will fight hard to make sure part of the site is parkland open to the public. "We want those piers to become active recreation space for the community,"Wils said.

Architect Frank Gehry, who designed the famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, created a concept for the new building. A model is on display at the Fifth Ave. museum.

Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan) said she hopes the plan can be modified to please both the community and the museum.

Original Publication Date: 11/29/00

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, the Daily News article quoted above is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

To a Directory of Mr.Lederman's Essays

Important Note:
Mr. Lederman has explained that his articles posted here are not to be taken as official statements by the No-Spray Coalition of which he is a member or of the "No-Spray" lawsuit in which he is a plaintiff.

Robert Lederman is an artist, a regular columnist for the Greenwich Village Gazette [See: http://www.gvny.com/ for an extensive archive of Lederman columns] The Shadow, The African Sun Times, The Vigo-Examiner [see: http://www.vigo-examiner.com/archive.htm] and Street News, and is the author of hundreds of published essays concerning Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Lederman has been falsely arrested 41 times to date for his anti-Giuliani activities and has never been convicted of any of the charges. He is best known for creating hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator.

Robert Lederman,
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net

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