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Settlement in NYC Museum Flap
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The city and the Brooklyn Museum of Art have reached
a truce in a heated six-month legal battle sparked by an exhibit
featuring a dung-decorated painting of the Virgin Mary.
In a settlement signed Monday and approved by U.S. District Judge Nina
Gershon, both sides agreed to drop dueling lawsuits over the
''Sensation'' exhibit and pay their own legal fees.
The judge specifically barred Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the city from
inflicting ''any punishment, retaliation, discrimination or sanction
of any kind'' against the museum.
The deal also commits the city to spend $5.8 million over two years
for a museum renovation project.
The settlement came six months after Giuliani -- calling the painting
''sick'' -- froze an annual $7.2 million operating subsidy for the
museum, then sued in state court to evict it from its city-owned site.
The judge declared the sanctions unconstitutional late last year in a
preliminary order restoring funding. The mayor refused to back down
and appealed her decision.
''Today, Mayor Giuliani has agreed that the preliminary injunction
that he ridiculed a few months ago will become permanent,'' museum
attorney Floyd Abrams said at a news conference.
Giuliani, who had been scheduled to be deposed in the case next week,
was meeting with Republican leaders in Albany and raising funds in
Cleveland for his U.S. Senate bid and had no immediate response.
Corporation Counsel Michael Hess insisted the administration was
''very gratified'' with the settlement. ''We felt at this time that it
was time to end the hostilities on both sides,'' he said.
Museum officials, meanwhile, portrayed the agreement as a resounding
victory for the museum -- and for free speech. Abrams characterized
the City Hall offensive as ''one of the most dangerous assaults on the
First Amendment'' that he had seen as a veteran constitutional lawyer.
^------=
On the Net: http://www.brooklynart.org
AP-NY-03-28-00 0620EST<
Copyright (c) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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03/28/2000
