5Pointz Artists Win Big
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM
After a three-week trial in No-vember,
a Brooklyn judge had
ordered developers to pay
$6.7 million to 5Pointz art-ists
who had their artwork destroyed
to create residential towers.
The abandoned building at 45-46 Da-vis
St. in Long Island City had for years
been used as a blank canvass 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 white-washed
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 paint-ing
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
22 MARCH 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
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 act-ed
illegally when he painted over almost
50 pieces of graffiti at the famed Long
Island City site. After months of delib-eration,
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 as-sessed,”
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.
Community News
Photo courtesy of Flickr/iamNigelMorris
