$6.7M award to Qns. graffiti artists upheld

Twenty-one graffiti artists are due $6.7 million under a court judgment upheld Thursday against a developer who destroyed their works at the famed 5Pointz art mecca in Queens.

The 32-page decision affirmed Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Frederic Block’s decision in 2018 to hit developer Gerald Wolkoff with the seven-figure judgment.

The artists sued Wolkoff, taking their case to an unprecedented trial arguing their work at the old Long Island City factory was work of “recognized stature” protected by the federal Visual Artists Rights Act, a federal law that took effect in 1990.

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision, written by Judge Barrington Parker, said that temporary art like graffiti can indeed have “recognized stature” under the Visual Artists Rights statute.

In 2002, Wolkoff enlisted artist Jonathan Cohen, better known as Meres One, to turn the dilapidated building — which once housed a water meter factory — into an exhibition space.

Eleven years later, Cohen learned Wolkoff planned to demolish the site to build luxury apartments.

That sparked a legal battle between the artists and Wolkoff.

In November 2013, Wolkoff hired workers to whitewash 45 spray-painted artworks on the site — several months before he received his demolition permits.