Graffiti Artist awarded $6.7M for destroyed work

[One Bad Pig]

That's why I said it would depend on the contract. If it were specified in the contract that the art could be removed once the lease was over, for instance, then it would be a simple matter to paint over them.

You wouldn't even need that; the only way the owner's hands would be tied is if he agreed in the lease that the artwork would be preserved.

But apparently in this case, the artwork and building became something of a famous landmark. And since the art was done legally, the artists did have a case to try to get the courts to declare it an actual landmark. The owner apparently decided to take matters into his own hand and painted over the artwork instead of waiting for the court to decide.

It was a jackass move, but being a jackass isn't illegal.

[Sparko]

You wouldn't even need that; the only way the owner's hands would be tied is if he agreed in the lease that the artwork would be preserved.

It was a jackass move, but being a jackass isn't illegal.

Apparently it is. That is what the OP story is about.

[Mountain Man]

If he took action with the knowledge that a legal remedy was being sought and with the explicit purpose of preventing that legal remedy then that probably did not sit well with the court. I suspect that's why the settlement award was so high.

[Sparko]

Seems like they should have used that VARA law to stop those idiots from removing the confederate statues. Seems like the same principal to me. Those statues are works of art and landmarks.

[Sparko]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Artists_Rights_Act

[Mountain Man]

Yeah, but the statues were racist... or something.

[Terraceth]

Seems like they should have used that VARA law to stop those idiots from removing the confederate statues. Seems like the same principal to me. Those statues are works of art and landmarks.

VARA, from what I can gather, largely expires upon the death of the author of the work. I don't think the creators of the Confederate statues are alive anymore, so I don't think it applies.