The Village of Sag Harbor in Long Island’s East End has ruled against a sculpture by Larry Rivers that consists of 16-ft. legs attached to the side of a house:
The legs got their start when Mr. Rivers and other artists, like Alexander Calder, were commissioned to build pieces for Smith Haven Mall on Long Island, which opened in 1969.
Mr. Rivers’s contribution was a mixed media assemblage called “Forty Feet of Fashion,” a collection of lips, legs and consumer goods made from vinyl, plexiglass, metal, light bulbs and other materials.
It was disassembled after another developer took the mall over, but Mr. Rivers later installed the legs at his studio in Southampton, annoying neighbors and amusing friends who had to walk under them to get inside. (They were put in storage after his death.)
A second pair of legs was cast in 1994 and was sold to a collector and then to Ms. Vered, an East End publicity magnet, and Ms. Lehr, who in 2008 installed them on the side of their whitewashed home.
But the village had a problem with that. The building inspector said they needed a building permit, and Mr. Thiele issued an opinion that the sculpture should be considered an accessory structure and conform with the village code.
