UPDATE: Judge Denies MASS MoCA’s Request To Keep Artists From Making Art
On Friday, August 17, 2007, a Massachusetts Magistrate Judge denied MASS MoCA’s request to keep litigation documents confidential and from public view. Aside from very limited set of documents, the Magistrate Judge ruled that nothing is to be kept confidential. Büchel submitted his opposition to MASS MoCA’s request for an emergency motion for protective order on Thursday, arguing that MASS MoCA’s request would violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by not allowing either party or the public to disclose and discuss tesimony given or documents produced during litigation.
In effect, Büchel’s attorneys argued that MASS MoCA “sued an artist claiming a right to charge the public to view a display of his unfinished work thus [now] claims that it is aggrieved by the artist having the temerity to make art out of the museum’s use of the legal process to take control of his creation.”