The Battery Park City Authority has sent Community Board 1 a letter stating that it does not approve the installation of a Tom Otterness sculpture group for the Battery Park City Library, according to an article by Jessica Terrell in the July 6, 2011 edition of The TriBeCa Trib.

"The BPCA said it was declining to accept the artist's offer, the creation of two five-foot bronze lions and five small cubs to go in front of the library on North End Avenue. A sixth cub would have been placed inside the building. The Authority says it is rejecting the offer because the donor is anonymous and because the proposal did not follow procedures for vetting artwork and allowing public competition," the article said.

The community board had previously voted to support the Otterness installation and its Battery Park City committee recently voted to request more information from the authority about the proper process for commissioning a new site-specific work of art, the article said, adding that "it appears unlikely that Otterness' lion and cubs will make it to the library."

A March 9, 2011 article at DNAinfo.com by Julie Shapiro said that "a pair of bronze lions towering 5 feet tall may soon guard the entrance to the Battery Park City Library as sculptor Tom Otterness has agreed to craft the lions, after a local resident anonymously volunteered to cover the cost."

"We're all really excited," Otterness said, adding that "the idea is to do a variation on the New York Public Library lions, which are such a well-known emblem," the article said.

"Unlike Patience and Fortitude, the reclining marble lions in front of the midtown library, these lions would sit up on their haunches, Otterness said. One will be male and the other female, and they will be surrounded by a bunch of cubs just 6 inches tall. One will be munching on a little bronze book," the article said. It was illustrated with a sketch by the artist, shown at the right.

"Otterness sees the lions as a continuation of 'The Real World,' his 1992 installation of playful bronze figurines in Rockefeller Park a few blocks away. Many of those figures are shown carrying pennies, so Otterness plans to show one of the lion cubs with a bag of pennies as well," the article continued.

The lions would likely sit just north of the library's entrance on North End Avenue and could arrive as soon as the spring of 2012, Otterness said, the article said, adding that "the idea for the lions came from Tom Goodkind, a Battery Park City resident who first suggested the project as a joke several years ago. But other residents liked the idea and Goodkind began pursuing it seriously. He called Otterness, who was intrigued, but the project was on hold until recently because of a lack of funding. 'The kids are going to love it," Goodkind said. "It really enhances the neighborhood.'"

Otterness, a Kansas native who studied at the Art Students League in the 1970s, has created many popular and delirious public art installations in the city, including "Life Underground" at the 14th Street and Eighth Avenue subway station.

The Battery Park City Library opened in 2010.

Mr. Otterness should join Red Grooms in the pantheon of great artists who love New York and whose works create highly imaginative and joyous mayhem.

"I think this is crazy, absolutely crazy," CB1 board member Tom Goodkind said. "For God's sake, it's free."

All of the public art in Battery Park City was selected with the help of a committee and paid for by the Authority, BPCA president Gayle Horwitz said in a letter to the Community Board.

"As you all know, acceptance of gifts by governmental entities is a very sensitive issue. The public authorities law demands transparency," Horwitz wrote, in a letter read aloud at the meeting. "Acceptance of a gift whereby the Authority will neither know with whom it was dealing or have any control over the artist or artwork is inconsistent with these transparency objectives."