L.A. Muralist Sues Caltrans

Frank Romero, a noted muralist and pioneering Chicano painter, is suing Caltrans for painting over a mural he created along the Hollywood Freeway downtown in conjunction with the 1984 Olympics.

Romero’s suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that sometime after June 1, 2007, a Caltrans work crew painted over his 102-foot-long, 20-foot-high mural, “Going to the Olympics,” erasing it from a wall at Alameda Street. The episode took place, the suit says, without Romero having been given the advance notice required under a 1980 state law protecting artists’ “moral rights.” The notice provides 90 days for the artist to save or relocate works of public art before a building’s owner can have them removed.

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Tags: frank romero, hollywood freeway, mural