New York Judge awards $6.7 Million to 21 Graffiti Artists

I saw in the news today that a NY Judge has awarded $6.7 Million to 21 Graffiti artists for Destroyed Murals

The murals were at the 5pointz complex in Queens, and in this post I will share some shots I took of this area back in 2013.

On Monday the Brooklyn Judge ruled that a real estate developer who whitewashed dozens of graffiti murals at the 5 points buildings violated the visual artists rights act which apparently has been used to protect public art of a recognized nature created on someone else’s property.




From what I have read the owner bought the property in the 1970’s for $1 Million and was approached but the artists in the 1990s to request permission to display their art on the vacant 5 story building and the owner agreed




In 2002 one artist started curating the area, the idea being that artists were welcomed to come and paint in the area with the understanding it could be painted over at some stage but if the work was amazing it would stay on display for longer.
In Nov 2013 the owner decided to demolish the site and build new stores and apartments, however by then 5Pointz was well known graffiti are site and had a lot of followers and tourists who would visit there regularly.

The owner had painters come in and whitewash over all the decades of graffiti art work in the night hours in the hope of avoiding conflict.

When this was done there was quite an uproar in the city with many feeling doing the whitewashing in the cover of night was artistic murder and reprehensible.

A group of the artists banded together and filed the lawsuit, part of the argument seems to be that if appropriate notice had been given some of the art could have been saved or moved or at the least well documents with photographs and video.

In November of 2017 a civil jury found that the developer had violated the Visual Artists Rights Act in 45 Cases and this led to the Judges ruling this week awarded a $6.7 Million award to the 21 Artists.

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I could see quite a mixed reaction to this award, from agreeing with the award to feeling the owner was within his right to do what he wished with his property

What are your thoughts on this, do you feel the award to the artists is a fair decision.

I personally am of mixed opinion, I do feel the owner should have the right to develop the property and not have it sitting vacant and being used but he 5Pointz artists ( also bearing in the mind the artists used to collect money from people who wanted to enter the complex)

However I do also feel that the owner should have given the artist notice since he had given permission for the graffiti artist to paint there

I was blown away by the quality of some of the art in the area and the following shots are some of my favorites I saw there

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Please note these are just a few of my photos of the graffiti art that was at 5Pointz and this is only a very small portion of all the art that was there.

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Unless stated otherwise all photos used in my posts are taken and owned by myself, if you wish to use any of my images please contact me.

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