Visual Artists Rights Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other meanings of VARA see Vara (disambiguation)

The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), 17 U.S.C. § 106A, is a United States law protecting artist rights.

With the VARA, Congress defined certain works as visual arts. The act was the first to legislate moral rights of attribution and integrity for visual art works. While federal law had not acknowledged moral rights prior to this act, some state legislatures and judicial decisions created limited moral rights protection. Using the Berne Convention as its example, the rights were provided for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Under the act, artists can claim or disclaim authorship of displayed works, prevent distortion, mutilation, or modification and were granted some rights to prevent destruction of works incorporated into an architectural structure. The level of quality or recognition of a work does not affect the rights granted to the artist. The rights granted by this act only extend for the life the artist, however other state and federal statutes may apply thereafter.

In a 2006 decision involving public sculptures that were removed from the park for which they were created, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that VARA does not protect location as a component of site-specific work. VARA-covered works can be moved as long as the move does not constitute "destruction, distortion, or mutilation." See Phillips v. Pembroke Real Estate, Inc., No. 05-1970, 1st Cir. Aug. 22, 2006.