Celebrity News

Hamptons ‘Legs’ might walk

A Bitter battle over whether artist Larry Rivers’ landmark sculpture “Legs” will take a hike from its current home in Sag Harbor is about to come to a head after years of debate.

The pair of whimsical, 16-foot-tall fiberglass gams are displayed on the side of the Hamptons home of gallerists Janet Lehr and Ruth Vered, who installed them in 2008.

Sag Habor’s zoning board has deemed the sculpture illegal because it considers the likeness of female legs in stockings to be a “structure,” and thereby a foot taller than allowed, among other infractions, including being too close to the property line.

“What’s really bad is that they’re calling it a structure,” says Vered, “It’s demeaning, and unacceptable.”

She and Lehr brought a lawyer, a rep from the Larry Rivers Foundation and supporters to a Tuesday showdown with the board. “This is an issue of freedom of expression,” Vered told us. “I think it’s OK for someone not to like [‘Legs’]. But . . . you have to understand it first. It’s like burning a book. Larry lived [in the Hamptons] and died here, and he’s buried here.”

Ironically, Rivers caused his own controversy in Southampton when he had a similar “Legs” sculpture straddling the entrance to his home. “[Larry] used to say, ‘I love the fact that people have to walk through the ‘Legs’ to get into my home. They are the gates to my studio,” said a Hamptons source.

Vered told us she’s gotten 540 people to sign a petition and 74 letters of support. After the hot-button meeting where “there was no room to stand,” the zoning board decided to postpone its decision for 10 days of additional public comment.

“I want people to support us, but I don’t want to make a circus out of it,” Vered said. “This is a big art community.” She added, “This was a whaling town. If I had a whale hanging [on the side of my house], they would love it.”

A rep for the zoning board and the village of Sag Harbor did not return calls.