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QUEENS WEEKLY, MARCH 1, 2020
Court of Appeals upholds decision
awarding $6.75M to 5Pointz artists
BY BILL PARRY
Developer Jerry Wolkoff is
going to have to pay millions
in damages for destroying the
5Pointz graffiti mecca back in
November 2013 in an effort to
tear down the dilapidated warehouse
complex so he could build
two luxury residential towers
in Long Island City.
The Second Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld Federal Judge
Frederick Block’s $6.75 million
judgement against Wolkoff,
ruling that his whitewashing
of the murals at 5Pointz violated
the federal Visual Artists
Rights Act.
“I’m very happy,” 5Pointz
Founder and Curator Jonathan
“Meres One” Cohen said. “I
never would have thought that
four federal judges would validate
graffiti art as legitimate
art and that’s what they’ve done
with this landmark ruling. I’m
numb to it still.”
The decision sets a precedent
for future aerosol artists in that
VARA had never been used in a
case involving graffiti art.
“The statute recognizes
that, unlike novelists, or composers,
for example, visual artists
depend on the integrity of
the physical manifestations
of their works,” U.S. Circuit
Judge Barrington D. Parker
Jr. wrote in the 32-page ruling
on behalf of the three-judge
panel.
Wolkoff, who named his new
complex 5Pointz Towers, argued
that the temporary quality
of the murals didn’t meet
with VARA standards and that
the artists covered their own
works to make way for new murals.
“Although a work’s short
lifespan means that there will
be fewer opportunities for the
work to be viewed and evaluated,
the temporary nature of the
art is not a bar to recognized
stature,” Parker wrote.
In 2002, Wolkoff allowed Cohen
and graffiti artists from
around the world to fill the
warehouse walls with aerosol
art and before long 5Pointz became
a tourist attraction and
epicenter of the New York City
hip-hop scene.
When Judge Block issued
his decision in February 2018
following a three-week jury
trial at Federal District Court
in Brooklyn, he praised the 21
artists who filed suit writing
that they “conducted themselves
with dignity, maturity,
respect, and at all times within
the law,” adding that their behavior
contributed to his decision
to award them significant
damages.
“The legacy of 5Pointz may
be this ruling and the clear
statement that aerosol art and
public art are not disposable.
The 21 plaintiffs, including
myself, believed in the law and
stood up for our rights, we believed
in the value of our art
and we were heard,” Cohen said
at the time.
“The art adorning 5Pointz is
gone and can never be replaced,
the 7 train commute will never
be the same, but Honorable
Judge Block’s judgement is historical
for generations of artists
all around the country. 5Pointz
art was a true form of free
speech, and this ruling honors
this great American tradition
of standing up for your rights,”
he added.
As Wolkoff and his son David
prepare to open the 5Pointz
Towers in May, they also have a
big decision to make.
“I don’t know what happens
next, that’s what David and I
are contemplating right now,
whether to end this right now
or take it to the Supreme Court
and we have 90 days to decide,”
Wolkoff said. “The worst part
about all this is I still think
I’m right but the whole world
thinks I’m wrong. Yeah, I painted
over it, but they painted over
it, too. I guess I’ll just have to
live with it.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by
e-mail at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718)
260–4538.
5Pointz became a hip hop hotspot before developer Jerry Wolkoff ordered its art whitewashed and court rules he
owes millions in damages. Photo by Bill Parry
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