René's gallery space and home was across the street from this lot. René always insisted he obtained permission from landlords to paint the murals, but requests were also sometimes refused, with some SoHo residents commenting that although a mural would be welcome on their property, an "I AM THE BEST ARTIST" mural would "not" be welcome. In the case of one refusal, René painted the attendants' stand of the parking lot facing the declined property, getting permission from its owner instead. Another dispute involved a French artist named Le Pointre who tried to claim use of a wall for which René insisted he'd already obtained permission to paint a mural. Vandals often defaced these walls with sarcastic embellishment such as "I Am The Best Fartist" and "I Am The Best Anus", or added simplistic commentary such as "No No No" or "I hate you". Graffiti artists of the era also occasionally obscured the murals with their own work. "IATBA" murals which may have been defaced would be faithfully repainted by René. René claims the art critic Robert Hughes once assured him directly that he was not, in fact, the best artist. An "Artforum" writer used an unrelated art review to shine a negative light on "The Best Artist", calling René "untalented" and "unchic". Loss of long-time artist friends was another unfortunate consequence. One of the murals located along West Broadway was across the street from a gallery owned by Lynn Rubin. René claimed to have obtained permission from the owner of the building to paint the mural at that location. When it came to his attention that Rubin was having her staff paint over the mural, René arrived to videotape them. Rubin tried to stop him from recording, and it was then, René alleges in a lawsuit filed against her, that she assaulted him by pushing the camcorder into his face, causing him hardship and suffering. The outcome of the lawsuit was not published, but René's murals, and the related legal proceedings, raised discussion about intellectual property, artist's rights, and the First Amendment. René opened his storefront space at 147 Wooster Street, SoHo, as "René's Gallery" in 1977. He opened it to showcase his own artwork — a "monument to himself", as described by John Strausbaugh in a "New York Press" article of the era — and also used the space to the rear of the gallery as his studio.