The developer Aby Rosen reached a deal to keep a 33-foot-tall Damien Hirst sculpture on his property in Old Westbury, N.Y. Credit Joshua Bright for The New York Times
The naked lady stays.
The planning board of the Village of Old Westbury, N.Y., agreed on Monday to allow the art collector Aby Rosen to keep “The Virgin Mother,” a 33-foot-tall painted bronze sculpture of a pregnant woman with an exposed fetus, by Damien Hirst, on his property. Neighbors had objected to the graphic sculpture, which could be glimpsed from a private road leading to Mr. Rosen’s estate. The outdoor art even prompted the board to consider enacting a law to prohibit any structures — including sculptures — from rising more than 25 feet.
But a new landscaping plan has soothed critics, Mayor Fred J. Carillo said. The statue — with its partly ripped-away skin that reveals the woman’s skeleton as well as the fetus — will be installed in the pocket of a hill so that it rises only 25 feet above level ground. The statue will be turned so that the detailed anatomy will face the house instead of the road, and it will not have any artificial lighting.
Finally, Mr. Rosen has agreed to maintain all-season landscaping that will shield the statue from view. Thus, the statue’s proverbial fig leaves will remain even in the fall and winter, when most other trees lose theirs.
“They were very cooperative,” Mr. Carillo said of Mr. Rosen’s team.
A real estate developer and avid art collector, Mr. Rosen also serves as chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts.
The Old Westbury planning board also approved the siting of two other statues on Mr. Rosen’s property: “Wind-Up Hello Kitty,” a sculpture by Tom Sachs, and “Untitled: Figure Balancing on Dog,” by Keith Haring, Newsday reported.
“The village approvals have all been obtained,” Peter MacKinnon, Mr. Rosen’s lawyer, said. “Everybody’s happy.”