"There is no obligation from the city to fund the arts. But the First Amendment says, according to a wide, sustained, continuing body of case law, that the funding process may not be used to coerce institutions such as this to do the bidding of its political leaders. So while New York never has to fund any museum, once New York starts down that road, it cannot violate the First Amendment by a process of coercion, sanction, threats, retribution and the like." Mr Abrams is the legal counsel for the Brooklyn Museum of Art