Backstory: The Legal Fight Over Larry's Legs in Sag Harbor

Today, giant sculptures created by internationally known artists sit on the lawns of perhaps 50 offices, stores and cultural institutions in the Hamptons. It was not always so. Back around 2006, a bitter fight took place in Sag Harbor when one of the first of those sculptures got placed on the lawn of a private home in Sag Harbor at the corner of Madison Street and Henry. It was 16 feet tall, a construction by Larry Rivers of Southampton whose works often created controversy, and on the lawn of a homeowner, a prominent art gallery owner named Ruth Vered. Sculpture on the lawn was a new idea, but some neighbors, objected. And ultimately, the Village joined with the neighbors. The sculptures did not conform to zoning.

The sculptures were legs, a provocative pair of woman’s legs with stockings pulled up to mid-thigh. They appeared to be made of white ceramic material.

When the smoke cleared, which was eight years later, the Village had ordered the sculpture removed over and over, had gotten court decisions in their favor and yet the gallery owner still had Larry Rivers’ Legs up there. Amazing.

You could rule it had to be removed. But you could not go onto someone’s private property and just do so.

Until 2023, it was still there. But then somebody threw red paint on it. Nobody knows who. And now it is in a workshop being repaired and cleaned.

So the flood gates opened. And today, beautiful works of art sit on the front lawns of buildings almost everywhere.

In researching this article, I made another interesting discovery. Further down Madison in Sag Harbor, closer to the center of town, there sits another building with a sculpture on the lawn.

It is a magnificent former Methodist Church whose congregation moved to a smaller building to worship, leaving this grand structure abandoned for some years until four years ago when it was privately purchased and turned into a major cultural center featuring lectures, concerts, performances and workshops.

Those who bought and developed it call it “The Church.” The Martha Graham Dance troupe will be performing there in coming weeks.

You might have thought that “The Church” was the only church in Sag Harbor shut down and repurposed. You would be wrong.

Just a few blocks away, it turns out, the home of Ruth Vered is also a former church that shut down and got repurposed.

Unlike “The Church,” however, it is not in the state’s register of Historic Places.

This designation does not change anything. But it would protect it. Ruth Vered’s home has the same soaring nave where religious leaders prayed and sang.

It was built as the Bethel Baptist Church around 1870 and held its last service there in 1923.

But, a newer Baptist Church got built along the Sag Harbor Turnpike and the earlier Bethel Baptist Church building got shuttered. From 1923 to 1950, it was used as a public Meeting Hall for the town. Then it got sold to become a private home, which is what it is today. With Larry’s Legs, the controversy.

Have a East End real estate story? Want to share? Text us at 516-527-3566. We’ll call you back, and then write it up for this weekly column. –Dan