NYU Decides Against Buying Rivers’ Videos

NYU has changed its mind. Presumably the public uproar over NYU’s acquisition of Larry Rivers’ tasteless videos made NYU change its mind. According to last Friday’s New York Times, New York University informed the Larry Rivers Foundation that it did not want those materials included as part of the archive it was purchasing. The question now is what will the Foundation do with the videos and film, especially given the fact that Rivers’ daughters would still like to obtain the footage and keep it from public inspection.

After we blogged on this story last week, some interesting comments were posted. Here’s a sample:

If someone were to call a social worker and report something like this, the parents would be in big trouble and the girls might be taken away from them. Calling this “art” is like telling the emperor his suit of clothes is amazing.

And this from filmmaker Marina Lutz regarding her own relationship with her father’s voyeurism:

My father taped himself saying “This is not for us to know, but for you to know 10 or 20 years from now.” and I used this in my film as evidence. Chilling. One person pointed out another atrocity that became public: the images from Abu Ghraib. I kept reading and couldn’t believe the similarities to my own experience.

The rest of the comments may be accessed here.

Tags: Art Law, child pornography and art, first amendment, freedom of speech, larry rivers foundation, marina lutz