Justice Matthew F. Cooper ruled in a New York State Supreme Court that RFR Holding, the real estate company that owns the Seagram Building on Park Avenue, cannot remove Pablo Picasso’s ‘Le Tricorne’ from a wall of the Four Seasons Restaurant until the court issues a final ruling on the future of the art. The 19-foot-tall tapestry has hung in the Four Seasons, which is located inside the Seagram Building, for over 55 years.
The work was to be removed so that the wall behind the tapestry could be repaired, but the New York Landmarks Conservancy, which owns the tapestry, feared that the work would be damaged in the process and filed an injunction to halt the undertaking. During the court hearing, Justice Cooper said, “We’re not talking about wallpaper. We’re not talking about a poster. We’re talking about an irreplaceable Picasso...It’s part of New York’s social and cultural fabric.”
Peg Breen, the president of the Landmarks Conservancy, believed that once the tapestry was removed from the Four Seasons, Aby Rosen, an RFR founder, would replace it with a more contemporary work of art. Per Justice Cooper’s ruling, the tapestry cannot be removed from its current location without the Conservancy’s consent.
