ARTIST VICTORY
5Pointz graffiti artists awarded $6.7 million
after developer whitewashed artwork
BY ANGELA MATUA
@ANGELAMATUA
22 MARCH 2 0 1 8
Photo courtesy of Flickr/iamNigelMorris
The abandoned building at 45-46 Davis St. in
Long Island City had for years been used as a
blank canvas for graffiti artists to create artwork
that attracted locals and tourists. The developer,
Jerry Wolkoff, allowed them to use it for this purpose
until he decided to build two residential
buildings on the property.
In November 2013, Wolkoff whitewashed
the building overnight while the artists had
been trying to save the space from demolition.
Then, in August 2014, the property was
demolished.
In 2015, 21 artists filed a lawsuit against
the Wolkoff family, which owns G&M Realty,
claiming that the property’s owner committed
an illegal act by painting over their work
without giving them enough warning to take
it down and save it. They evoked the Visual
Artists Rights Act of 1990, which states that
protections against destruction of works are
afforded to authors who create art of “recognized
stature.”
A Brooklyn jury last November found that
5Pointz developer Jerry Wolkoff acted illegally
when he painted over almost 50 pieces of graffiti
at the famed Long Island City site. After months of
deliberation, Judge Frederic Block awarded the
artists $150,000 for each of the 45 works, according
to Artnet News.
“If not for Wolkoff’s insolence, these damages
would not have been assessed,” Block wrote in
the decision. “If he did not destroy 5Pointz until
he received his permits and demolished it 10
months later, the Court would not have found that
he had acted willfully.”
Jonathan Cohen, known as Meres One, was the
director of 5Pointz and one of more than a dozen
artists named in the lawsuit. In an Instagram post,
he uploaded a video of him clinking glasses of
champagne with a copy of Frederic Block’s book
titled “Disrobed: An Inside Look at the Life and
Work of a Federal Trial Judge.”
The apartment buildings on the site will also include
about 12,000 square feet for artist studios.
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
After a threeweek
trial in
November,
a Brooklyn judge
had ordered
developers to
pay $6.7 million
to 5Pointz artists
who had their
artwork destroyed
to create
residential towers.