Which federal law did the 5Pointz artists invoke to win their $6.7 million lawsuit?

The 5Pointz artists invoked the Visual Artists Rights Act to win their $6.7 million lawsuit. The U.S. law, commonly called VARA, is part of the Copyright Act of 1990 and protects certain moral rights in works of visual art, including rights against intentional destruction.

The case centered on 5Pointz, an industrial complex in Long Island City, Queens, that became a famous legal graffiti site under curator Jonathan Cohen. Property owner Gerald Wolkoff had the building’s murals whitewashed in 2013 before demolishing the complex for redevelopment. Twenty-one artists sued, arguing that their works had “recognized stature” under VARA and that they had not received the required advance notice.

In 2018, Judge Frederic Block awarded the artists $6.7 million in statutory damages. The Second Circuit upheld the judgment in 2020, establishing that temporary aerosol art can receive federal protection. The other choices are easy to confuse: VARA is contained within copyright law, but the specific legal provision used in the 5Pointz case was the Visual Artists Rights Act, not the general Copyright Act, trademark law, or fair-use doctrine.