"The precedent that it would have set for public art would have been terrible -- we had to fight it"

On the occasion of a gallery show of his work opening tonight, the LA Times profiles mural artist Kent Twitchell, whose six-story high "Ed Ruscha Monument" was painted over in 2006, leading to a lawsuit against the federal government (among others), which settled for $1.1 million, "believed to be the largest amount ever awarded under [VARA]." The paper says "negotiations have begun to re-create 'Ed Ruscha' on a side of the [L.A. Mart Design Center]."

For more on the settlement, see here.