Martin v. City of Indianapolis

Jan Martin (plaintiff), a trained sculptor, was commissioned by his employer to build a large metal sculpture, Symphony #1, on land later purchased by the City of Indianapolis (defendant). Martin designed the sculpture to be easy to disassemble and told the city so, and he offered several times to remove it. Instead, the city demolished the sculpture without notifying Martin. Martin sued under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), submitting a letter from an art-school director and newspaper and magazine articles as evidence that the sculpture had achieved recognized merit in the artistic community. The district court found this evidence admissible (not hearsay) and granted Martin summary judgment; the city appealed and Martin cross-appealed.