The destruction of Kent Twitchell's Ed Ruscha mural in downtown Los Angeles gets a mention in a couple of year-in-review pieces this weekend in the LA Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times.
First, from the Downtown News:
"Art lovers across the city were aghast on June 2 when a work crew painted over Kent Twitchell's 11,000-square-foot mural 'Ed Ruscha Monument.' In just a few hours, the 19-year-old creation on the side of YWCA Job Corps' new building at 1016 S. Olive St. was obliterated. Twitchell was stunned, and people clammed up when asked how such a disgrace occurred. A Twitchell lawsuit is pending."
And from the Times (which actually includes some news, highlighted in bold below, that I haven't seen reported before):
"Kent Twitchell's 'Ed Ruscha Monument,' a six-story portrait of artist Ruscha completed over the course of nine years, disappeared from the side of a Job Corps training center in downtown Los Angeles in June, sparking public outrage and a legal battle between building owners, contractors and the artist. In August, Twitchell, filed suit against several 'nongovernmental entities' that 'willfully and intentionally desecrated, distorted, mutilated and otherwise modified' the work by painting over it. The defendants have agreed to hire a consultant to determine whether the paint can be removed without damaging the mural."
The Times article also has good year-end summaries of the Klimt restitution and various Getty museum issues.
