Willis Tower Owners Battle Sears Over Artwork
CHICAGO (CBS) - The current owners of the Willis Tower are in a nasty legal battle with the former owners.
"The Universe," is the giant, motorized mobile by Alexander Calder that stands in the lobby of America's tallest building. It has been there since the day the skyscraper opened in 1973, as the Sears Tower.
Now, the original owners of the building, Sears, Roebuck & Co., want to buy the artwork back, and they say they have the legal right to do it.
But the current owners of the tower, an investment group called 233 S. Wacker LLC, say it's part of the building and has to stay.
In a lawsuit, Sears Roebuck officials said they were moving to buy the artwork back from the investment firm for half of its appraised value, as permitted in a 1994 agreement, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Sears Tower was commissioned by Sears Roebuck in 1970 and opened three years later. It was the tallest building in the world from its completion until 1996, when it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.
The building remains the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.
Sears Roebuck, now based in Hoffman Estates, moved out of the building has not had offices in the tower since 1992. The company lost its naming rights to the tower in 2003.
