Oddball New York registration question

[767Jockey]

I bought a Cobra that was previously registered in New York State as a '84 Homebuilt. I live in New York as well. Normally this would be an easy registration, but here's the problem.

When they originally titled and registered the car, the State rep that did it placed the yellow VIN sticker on top of the cowl, behind the windshield. It's glued down on the painted area right behind the spot on the windshield where the registration and inspection stickers go. I can't get the sticker off without destroying it, and I want to repaint the car. Painting around it would look horrible, and probably wouldn't be possible since there's already 2 coats of paint on it, and I want to strip the car completely. It's in a very conspicuous area, and I want to do this right..

I called, and even went in to my local DMV office (Amityville, Long Island). They're totally clueless, and they clearly just couldn't care less. They can't even tell me who to call in Albany. Does ANYONE know what my options are here? Ideally I'd just like to get a duplicate sticker. I would think that would be fairly easy, but then again it's the State of New York we're talking about....