BLM accepts donation of easement where giant land sculpture is nearing completion

The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday accepted a donation of a 1,316-acre conservation easement on private lands in the Basin and Range National Monument, which will “soon” allow the public to access Michael Heizer’s enormous earth artwork called City, according to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

The easement in the Garden Valley area near Hiko contains a massive piece of earth art that Heizer has been working on since 1972 and hopes to complete in 2020. The piece is more than a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide and contains earthen mounds and pits, cinder-dyed cement slopes and geometric cement forms.

The land on which the sculpture sits is owned by the nonprofit Triple Aught Foundation, which previously granted a conservation easement to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to ensure its long-term protection. The museum subsequently offered to donate the easement to the Department of the Interior, which the BLM formally accepted on Thursday.

Under the agreement, the Triple Aught Foundation will continue to own the title to the land and the BLM will have the ability to prevent development incompatible with the protection of the artwork and the surrounding area.

It is not yet clear when the public will be able to view Heizer’s masterpiece, but Reid, who will retire in January as Nevada’s senior U.S. senator, said the day is drawing near.

“Soon, the entire world will get to experience this magnificent sculpture,” he said in Washington.