Fight over 5 Pointz ends with dirty tactics - whitewash

For artists battling to save 5 Pointz - reported here - it must have been heartbreaking to wake up to these scenes:



After the Federal Court ruling last week, refusing to grant an injunction to stop the demolition of 5 Pointz, the building owners appear to have taken matters into their own hands. They hired a crew of painters who worked through last night to whitewash the walls of 5 Pointz - covering up years of stunning street art, paintings and murals.

So much for the rights of the artists. No moral rights, just outrage.


 Photos by Tiernan Morgan

Artists fight for 5 Pointz

A group of street artists in New York have grouped together to fight the demolition of Long Island warehouse complex 5Pointz.

5Pointz - named in the claim as the "Mecca of the Aerosol Art World" - has been used by graffiti artists for the past 20 years to display their works. Artists were not only allowed to paint on the buildings, but there was an unofficial aerosol art program at 5Pointz whereby one of the plaintiffs was appointed by one of the the defendants to curate and manage the program.

In 2010, however, the owners of the site started at looking at the sale and redevelopment of the buildings after the NYC Buildings Department issued an order to close the largest of the buildings, as well as citing a number of violations including unsafe conditions. Then, earlier this year, the owners announced plans to demolish 5Pointz to make way for a luxury residential apartment development.

In an attempt to save the complex and their works, the artists have filed claims under the US Visual Artists Rights Act ("VARA") and copyright law. They argue that their pieces, paintings and murals on or at 5Pointz are each “works of visual art” within the meaning of VARA, and constitute copyrightable subject matter. Accordingly, the plaintiffs' honour and reputation as artists (ie. moral rights) will be damaged if the defendants destroy 5Pointz, thereby destroying the artists' works without their consent.

On 17 October 2013, the artists won the first round in the battle with Federal Court Judge Frederic Block granting a temporary restraining order prohibiting any demolition activities by the defendants in relation to the building, as well as prohibiting all painting on the building by the plaintiffs, for 10 days. This order expired on 28 October. The next round has now also gone to the artists who succeeded, this week, in getting the judge to extend the TRO for a further 14 days.

The next hearing of the case is scheduled for 6 November.

"Drunken Bulbs" by Jonathan Cohen - one of the many works at 5 Pointz cited in the claim 

Read the full claim here.

Don’t Mess with My Sculpture! Visual Artists Rights in Action

In July 2010, the New Jersey artist David Ascalon started a lawsuit against the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg on the basis that his rights under the US federal Visual Artists Rights Act 1990 (VARA) had been violated in relation to a Holocaust Memorial on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s state capital, which was installed in 1994.

VARA is effectively the US equivalent of moral rights and limits how a work of art may be disposed of or altered. These rights are unaffected by sale of the physical work of art or assignment of the copyright in the work. In other words, even though David Ascalon had sold the memorial to the Jewish Federation, he still retained certain rights in respect of how the Jewish Federation could use the sculpture.

The artist claimed that his rights were violated by the removal of his name from the sculpture’s base and the restoration of a decaying element of the original sculpture in which a rust-colored “barbed wire” serpentine element was replaced with stainless steel. After what was described in the press release as “several months of amicable negotiations among the parties” the parties reached a settlement on 7 February 2011 which includes providing David Ascalon with access to the sculpture to remake the “barbed wire” element and the restoration of his name to the sculpture.



This case offers an important reminder to arts owners that just because you own the physical work of art does not necessarily mean that the work is entirely yours to do whatever you choose.



For images of what the sculpture looked like before and after, see here.
To read the original complaint, click here.