5Pointz Developers File Appeal Over $6.8 Million USD Payment For Whitewashed Works

Claiming that the graffiti works are “ephemeral” and painting over them is part of the culture.

7 Comments

This past February, NYC federal judge Frederic Block ordered real estate developers and former owners of the 5Pointz graffiti mecca, Gerald and David Wolkoff, to pay $6.8 million USD in damages for whitewashing the works of 21 graffiti artists to build luxury towers. Now, the Wolkoffs and their lawyers have filed an appeal to reverse the decision this past Saturday.

According to Artnet, their lawyers have claimed that the graffiti works are “ephemeral” and painting over them is part of the culture. More precisely, they claim that these pieces are actually not protected under the Visual Rights Act (VARA) as judge Block determined. In the filing, they argue that VARA requires formal recognition of artworks before they are destroyed rather than “subjective assessments of the works’ quality.” To that matter, they expressed that the “ephemeral” works done by the 21 artists aren’t secured under VARA and they didn’t violate the law whatsoever.

“We didn’t feel the decision was the correct one,” David Wolkoff told Commercial Observer. “The nature of graffiti in itself is to paint over itself constantly, and [the artists] made reference to that and it’s what happened over the 27 odd years.” Furthermore, the filing goes on to call out Block’s impartiality through his court’s “repeated statements regarding its affinity for the works at issue, its dislike for the defendants and its stated desire to ‘find a lawful means of being able to support aerosol art’ as protected by VARA.”

“There are circumstances where ‘both for the judge’s sake and the appearance of justice, an assignment to a different judge is… in the public interest, especially as it minimizes even a suspicion of partiality,’” the stated the Wolkoffs and counsel.

Stay tuned for more details as they come and let us know your thoughts on the appeal.

Read Full Article
 
We got you covered. Don’t miss out on the latest news by signing up for our newsletters.

Looks like you’re using an ad-blocker

We charge advertisers instead of our readers. Support us by whitelisting our site.

Whitelist Us

How to Whitelist Us

screenshot
  1. Click the AdBlock icon in the browser extension area in the upper right-hand corner.
  2. Under “Pause on this site” click “Always”.
  3. Refresh the page or click the button below to continue.
screenshot
  1. Click the AdBlock Plus icon in the browser extension area in the upper right-hand corner.
  2. Block ads on – This website” switch off the toggle to turn it from blue to gray.
  3. Refresh the page or click the button below to continue.
screenshot
  1. Click the AdBlocker Ultimate icon in the browser extension area in the upper right-hand corner.
  2. Switch off the toggle to turn it from “Enabled on this site” to “Disabled on this site”.
  3. Refresh the page or click the button below to continue.
screenshot
  1. Click the Ghostery icon in the browser extension area in the upper right-hand corner.
  2. Click on the “Ad-Blocking” button at the bottom. It will turn gray and the text above will go from “ON” to “OFF”.
  3. Refresh the page or click the button below to continue.
screenshot
  1. Click the UBlock Origin icon in the browser extension area in the upper right-hand corner.
  2. Click on the large blue power icon at the top.
  3. When it turns gray, click the refresh icon that has appeared next to it or click the button below to continue.
screenshot
  1. Click the icon of the ad-blocker extension installed on your browser.You’ll usually find this icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. You may have more than one ad-blocker installed.
  2. Follow the instructions for disabling the ad blocker on the site you’re viewing.You may have to select a menu option or click a button.
  3. Refresh the page or click the button below to continue.