KIEFER SCULPTURE CAUSES PUBLIC OUTCRY IN CONNECTICUT

Alison Leigh Cowan reports in the New York Times that tempers are flaring in the historic Southport district of Fairfield, Connecticut, over a forty-ton, wavelike sculpture made of concrete, steel, and lead. The work, by Anselm Kiefer, has for the last few years been resting just behind a row of shrubs on the front lawn of Andrew and Christine Hall’s waterfront estate. The town’s Historic District Commission insists that the object meets the legal test for a structure and requires a certificate of appropriateness. In 2005, a superior court judge in Stamford sided with the town but delayed enforcing the ruling so that it could be appealed. Now, the Connecticut Supreme Court has swooped in and indicated that it wants to hear the case next month—before the state’s appellate division had the chance to act.