SCOTUS Declines To Consider Case From 5Pointz Developer, Sealing $6.75M Victory For Artists Whose Work Was Destroyed

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a Queens development firm's case after a ruling earlier this year upheld that artists at the famous 5Pointz building were owed $6.75 million in damages after their works were destroyed nearly seven years ago.

G&M Realty's petition to SCOTUS to review the case was declined on Monday, keeping in place a lower court ruling that awarded millions in damages to the 21 artists after the late Jerry Wolkoff whitewashed the renowned Long Island City site in 2013. That ruling determined the graffiti art fell under the "recognized stature" provision of the Visual Artists Rights Act.

"Seven years later all the art is gone and cannot be brought back," Marie Cecile Flageul, a spokesperson for the 5Pointz artists on the case, said. "With this final chapter the legacy of 5 Pointz is and will be this historical recognition of the art form and a victory for visual artists and their moral rights."

A lawyer on the case for G&M Realty, Scott Gant, said the disputed term—"recognized stature"—remains vague until the Supreme Court rules on the matter.

"What it does is it leaves tremendous uncertainty for property owners because a part of our argument was that property owners cannot determine whether or not a work is of recognized stature because it is novel and undefined and subject to disagreement," said Gant, of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. "So if a property owner is trying to figure out whether this statue applies to a given piece of work, there is no objective way to make a determination about whether it’s covered by statute or not."

"Property owners are left with a conundrum," Gant added.

Wolkoff first enlisted artists to convert the spaces on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City into the mecca of "aerosol art" back in 2002, working with Jonathan Cohen, or Meres One. But when Wolkoff made plans to demolish 5Pointz and build condos, painting the artworks white, the artists fought back.

Back in February, Wolkoff told Gothamist of the Second Circuit decision in favor of the artists, "I'm not sure what I can do. I don't know." Wolkoff died in July at 83-years-old.

Though the artists have been victorious in their legal battle, the 5Pointz art is long-gone. Now, a two-tower complex with more than 1,000 apartments are getting the "final touches," New York YIMBY reported in August. Most of the apartments will be market rate, while about 20% of the apartments will earmarked as "affordable."