Richard Serra, American sculptor and major figure in contemporary art, has died at 85. The artist was known for his monumental works made of rusted steel plates exhibited around the world.
Born in San Francisco to a mother of Russian Jewish origin and a Spanish father, he trained in Paris then settled in the 1960s in New York in full artistic ferment. In 1981, his work "Tilted Arc", a gigantic metal plaque 3.6 m high and 36.6m long installed across New York's Federal Plaza, had to be dismantled. After complaints and petitions, Tilted Arc was removed.