By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
BATTERY PARK CITY — A pair of bronze lions guarding the entrance to the Battery Park City Library would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood, local residents said at a meeting Tuesday night.
Community Board 1's Battery Park City Committee voted to support the proposal by sculptor Tom Otterness to put the 5-foot-tall lions, along with a handful of cubs, outside the library on North End Avenue.
"This would great enhancement to the Battery Park City Library and the community," said Harold Reed, chairman of the board's Arts & Entertainment Task Force.
The installation — inspired by Patience and Fortitude, the marble lions at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue — includes a male lion and a female lion sitting solemnly on their haunches, while their cubs tumble around between them. Two of the cubs play tug-of-war with a book, while another, which would be installed inside the library, watches through the window.
Otterness has already found an anonymous donor — a Battery Park City resident who collects Otterness' work — who has agreed to cover the $750,000 cost of fabricating and installing the sculptures.
If the Battery Park City Authority approves the project, Otterness said he could put the lions in place as soon as next spring.
However, Authority President Gayle Horwitz said she needs more information before she can give Otterness the go-ahead. Horwitz is concerned about the cost of insuring and maintaining the bronze sculptures, and she said it is unclear whether the authority has to issue a formal request for proposals before giving public sidewalk space to an artist's work.
George Mihaltses, a vice president at the New York Public Library, said he had similar concerns about cost.
Otterness said the sculptures would require up to $2,000 a year in maintenance, but he said he usually gets some help from the kids who constantly run their hands over the bronze figurines in other outdoor installations.
"They're doing a lot of the polishing for us," Otterness said.
Two local residents also raised concerns about an art film Otterness made in 1977 in which he shot a dog he had adopted from a shelter.
"It's something I deeply regret," Otterness told the board. "Explaining the confused reasoning I had [at the time] is a defense of the work, and I don't want to defend it. It is indefensible. All I can do is apologize for it and express my regret."
Otterness said he hoped that the many public art projects he has done all over the world — including his beloved "The Real World" installation in Rockefeller Park nearby — could begin to counterbalance the 34-year-old snuff film.
"I totally respect your apology," replied Paul Sipos, a member of CB1's Arts & Entertainment Task Force, "but I draw the line at the abuse of animals."
Sipos was one of two board members to abstain from the vote about the lions, but the project still passed overwhelmingly.
Linda Belfer, chairwoman of the Battery Park City Committee, had a less controversial concern.
"Are you sure you want the lion cub to tear the book?" Belfer asked Otterness, concerned that the cub was setting a bad example.
"This is the issue with public art," Otterness replied, looking amused. "You can't do [anything] without treading on a few toes."
