There's currently a fight to save a large, fragile Picasso painting from removal from the Seagram Building's Four Seasons Restaurant, which owner RFR Holding is threatening to remove on February 9. On one side is RFR, saying that the limestone wall on which the "Le Tricorne" hangs is structurally unstable, and on the other is the Landmarks Conservancy, the owner of the artwork, which claims that moving it could destroy it (it would apparently "crack like a potato chip"). It's a now-brittle 19' x 20' canvas created for the Ballets Russes in 1919, and it has hung in the restaurant since 1959. RFR's chief, Aby Rosen, is an art aficionado himself, so the skirmish is a bit of a mystery. The Times speculates why. [NYT]
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