Fine art: physical alteration or destruction.

Existing law, the California Art Preservation Act (CAPA) , prohibits certain acts relating to the physical alteration or destruction of fine art, defined as an original painting, sculpture, or drawing, or an original work of art in glass, of recognized quality, other than a work prepared under contract for commercial use by its purchaser, including the intentional defacing, mutilating, altering, or destruction of a work of fine art except by an artist who owns and possesses a work of fine art that the artist has created. Existing law requires a trier of fact regarding the question of whether a work of art is of recognized quality to rely on the opinions of artists, art dealers, collectors of fine art, curators of art museums, and other persons involved with the creation or marketing of fine art. This bill would require a trier of fact to additionally rely on the visibility of the work, community recognition awards attributable to the work, and recognition and awards received by the artist of the work. CAPA provides that if a work of fine art cannot be removed from a building without substantial physical defacement, mutilation, alteration, or destruction of the work, the rights and duties described above, unless expressly reserved by an instrument in writing signed by the owner of the building, containing a legal description of the property and properly recorded, shall be deemed waived. The law also provides that if a work of fine art can be removed from a building without substantial harm to the fine art, and in the course of or after removal, the owner intends to cause or allow the fine art to suffer physical defacement, mutilation, alteration, or destruction, the rights and duties described above apply unless the owner of the building has provided, or diligently attempted to provide, written notice to the artist or the artist's heir, beneficiary, devisee, or personal representative, and the notified parties have failed to remove the work or pay for its removal within 90 days. CAPA contains a similar provision in the case of a work of fine art that can be removed from a building scheduled for demolition without substantial physical defacement, mutilation, alteration, or destruction of the work, and the owner of the building has notified the owner of the work of fine art of the scheduled demolition or the owner of the building is the owner of the work of fine art, and the owner of the work of fine art elects not to remove the work of fine art. This bill would additionally include an interested community and a city art commission in the list of required recipients of the written notice described above and would authorize a court to extend the 90-day period within which a noticed party is required to act to remove the art from the building. CAPA authorizes an organization, defined as a public or private not-for-profit entity or association, in existence at least three years at the time an action is filed under that law, a major purpose of which is to stage, display, or otherwise present works of art to the public or to promote the interests of the arts or artists, to commence an action for injunctive relief to preserve or restore the integrity of a work of fine art from those acts, subject to certain conditions related to whether a work can be safely removed from a building, which are similar those described above. This bill would expand the definition of organization to include an entity in existence for at least one year, a major purpose of which is to preserve the cultural or historical integrity of the community.