A more thorough explanation:

The Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) is a federal law passed in 1990 that grants visual artists certain moral rights over their original and limited-edition creations. These rights are nontransferable and protect the artist's integrity and attribution.

VARA was created to meet the standards set by the Berne Convention, an international agreement on copyright law. The law ensures that the original artist, not the owner of the copyright, has the right to prevent their work from being changed or destroyed. Additionally, the artist may claim authorship of the original work and deny authorship if the work is modified.

For example, if a painter creates a mural on a building, VARA would give them the right to prevent the mural from being painted over or altered without their permission. If a photographer takes a picture and someone else modifies it without their consent, VARA would allow the photographer to deny authorship of the modified image.