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The Mary Miss artist accepted the deal, ending a year-long war to save her work. The museum said his work, which he commissioned, had a protection risk.
By Julia Halperin
A celebrated artwork by the environmental artist Mary Miss will be demolished by the museum that commissioned it.
On Tuesday, the Des Moines Art Center reached an agreement with Miss, 80, to dismantle her massive installation, “Greenwood Pond: Double Site,” in exchange for $900,000, ending the lawsuit she filed against the museum last April to visit the museum. Formation
The Des Moines Art Center invited Miss in the late 1980s to develop a site-specific work for a city-owned park. In late 2023, the museum told her that the installation — a network of curving walkways, cantilevered bridges and seating areas designed to encourage visitors to interact with the landscape — had become a safety hazard and was at risk of collapse. Replacing the degraded materials would cost $2 million to $2.6 million, a sum that it could not afford, the museum said.
It turns out that getting rid of paints is also expensive. In addition to paying Miss, the Des Moines Art Center estimated it would charge up to $350,000 to dismantle “Greenwood Pond: Double Site,” according to testimony notes from museum director Kelly Baum. This would bring the total cost of the settlement to $1. 25 million (not adding attorneys’ fees).
“The settlement will end a breach of contract lawsuit filed by Miss on April 4, 2024, and allow the Des Moines Art Center to proceed with previously stated plans to remove the artwork in its entirety,” the museum said in a statement.
In an interview, Miss described her emotions about the solution as “complicated. “
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