$5M lawsuit over destroyed mural
Bay Area artist files claim against owners of store on Story Road, citing laws that require notice before damaging artwork
SAN JOSE >> Bay Area muralist Jose Meza Velasquez has filed a $5 million lawsuit in federal court against the new and former owners of a shuttered storefront on Story Road, alleging they violated state and federal laws that protect artists’ work when they removed his historic mural from the building without notice.
Community members and public officials were outraged after finding that a valuable piece of the city’s history had been quietly painted over before the sun rose one August morning. That scene set in motion a series of events that has culminated in the lawsuit, which alleges negligence on the owners’ behalf.
“Under state and federal law, an artist of a work of visual art must be given written notice before any alteration, defacement, modification, damage, or destruction to the work of visual art is taken,” said Enedina Cardenas, one of Velasquez’s attorneys. “Mr. Velasquez was not contacted by anyone, at any time, by any means, before the mural was painted over.”
Representatives for the two companies named in the suit, 2048 Partners LLC and A7 Story LLC, did not respond to requests for comment. Attorney Peter Ajlouny, who managed 2048 Partners LLC — the company that previously owned the building — didn’t respond to several phone calls made to his San Jose law firm last week. He previously told this news organization that he tried to market the property to Latino business owners, but that many objected to the mural.
“No prospective tenant liked the mural,” Ajlouny said in August. “They said it depicted an old colonial, subservient Mexico.”
David Finkelstein, an attorney for A7 Story LLC, the Milpitasbased company that purchased the building, didn’t respond to emails from this news organization.
Because the purchase of the property was finalized Aug. 31, just a few days before the mural disappeared, it’s unclear who painted over it. In court documents, Velasquez, an Oakland resident, alleges that 2048 Partners got rid of it before selling the property.
In a Sept. 6 letter to the city and local media, Finkelstein said A7 Story LLC did not remove the mural. The seller, he wrote, was, “obligated lawfully to remove the mural prior to my client’s purchase of the property.”
The letter also said the new owner was “saddened” to learn that the mural “may possibly have been removed without proper notice” to Velasquez.
Velasquez designed and painted the “Mural de la Raza” on the side of what was a Payless Shoes in 1985 with muralist Frank Torres, who went by the nickname Pancho, and a local youth group. A city landmark for 33 years, the mural paid homage to Chicano culture. Historical icons, civil rights leaders and other prominent figures of Mexican culture were depicted in the colorful work of art, a cultural gem that reminded many San Jose residents of their roots.
The artwork always mesmerized Jose Valle as a young boy, who remembers stopping to stare at the powerful imagery whenever his mother would take him shoe shopping at Payless. Through the years, it inspired him to learn more about his culture. It’s not about who painted over the mural, he said, but the fact that they did so in the first place.
“It was wrong just to remove it,” said Valle, who founded a group called Souleros Ball to preserve Chicano culture and history. “The property is obviously the property of the owner but the mural is called ‘Mural de la Raza. It’s the mural of the people.”
After Velasquez’s mural was removed, concerned community members formed “El Emergency Comité for the Preservation of Chicano Arts,” calling for the restoration and preservation of the mural and other historic works of art in the city. Three months later, there’s no indication that the Mural de la Raza will ever come back to east San Jose. The slate gray paint that covered the mural has since been tagged with graffiti.