"there is the right to have ones artistic creative work,available to the public"

That is the problem with the entire arguement. When you say it is the "right" to have the work available, you are speaking from a moral point of view and not a legal one. It would be wonderful if the world worked that way.   That change can't happen overnight.

At the recent Mystic Sea Music Festival there was a symposium, and one of the papers presented was about the works of Thomad D'Urfey. It caught my attention and I decided to see if the collection "Wit and Mirth, Pills to Purge Melancholy" was available in print. I could not find any publisher that has it available, and the copies I found were selling for over $1000.   While D'Urfey would not benefit from it, it would be wonderful to have his artistic creative work available to the public.

No, we can't recreate what we once were - but a song is not a museum piece.

As Satchel Paige said, "don't look back, the past may be gaining on you".

Keep the hope alive, I wish you luck in getting the rights to your work back.