Tag Archives: graffiti

New York class action alleges NYPD treats art like litter

Posted on: August 4, 2021 by Stephanie Drawdy

On 10 April 2021, the New York City Police Department launched a city-wide graffiti clean-up campaign. One of its first orders of business: the documented destruction of a mural titled Death From Above that allegedly had been in place on a Brooklyn wall with permission for over a decade. The New York City Police Department’s […]

U.S. Supreme Court declines to review 5Pointz ruling

Posted on: November 13, 2020 by Stephanie Drawdy

The 5Pointz case has now been confirmed as viable authority in favor of artists’ rights in the United States. In early October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the petition for certiorari filed by developers Gerald Wolkoff and several of his real estate entities, thereby eliminating the last appellate hope the developers had to […]

5Pointz case stayed pending petition to U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on: June 12, 2020 by Stephanie Drawdy

A nearly seven-year long legal battle over the rights of aerosol artists that played out before the New York courts and resulted in a $6.75 million judgment in favor of the artists has taken yet another turn. In 2018, a ground-breaking judgment was handed down against a group of New York developers for willful removal […]

Corporate Misappropriation of Urban Art: The Legal Landscape in the U.S.

Posted on: March 31, 2020 by Stephanie Drawdy

Does an advertisement that shows street art without the artist’s permission infringe the artist’s rights? Does it matter if the art was painted on a building with the property owner’s permission? Would the answer change if the mural is on a building that is visible to the public? The unfortunate answer to each of these […]

5Pointz appeal marks quantum shift in U.S. copyright law

Posted on: March 18, 2020 by Stephanie Drawdy

The appeal of a multi-million dollar award in favor of a group of artists that made headlines in 2018 was recently decided by a U.S. appeals court. The question looming for the last two years in the precedential case known as 5Pointz: would a New York developer be required to pay over $6 million in […]

Update on the Stik matter

Posted on: April 30, 2016 by Alexander Herman

Many of you will remember that street artist Stik, who spoke at our 28 November 2015 Study Forum, was engaged in a dispute with a notable West London gallery for the return of a mural he had helped create for a local community in Gdansk, Poland in 2011. Well, there is now some more news […]

Up your street: a new perspective on street art?

Posted on: February 19, 2016 by Emily Gould

We tend to think of street art as highly contemporary – edgy, modern and up to the minute in its commentary on the social and political controversies of the day. But what about cave paintings, medieval etchings, scrawls on the walls of the ancient city of Pompeii? The once-widespread notion that graffiti and street art […]

Street artist and community fight for dismembered mural

Posted on: December 18, 2015 by Alexander Herman

British street artist “Stik”, known for painting giant stick-figure images on buildings around the world has become involved in a campaign to restitute a mural he helped create in the city of Gdansk, Poland in 2011. The mural, which features a series of 53 stick figures holding hands in celebration of the local community, was […]

The Moral Rights in a Banksy?

Posted on: September 14, 2015 by Alexander Herman

As reported far and wide, last Friday a High Court decision was rendered in a case involving a piece of Banksy street art called ‘Art Buff’, which had been stripped off a wall in Folkestone, England, and sent to the US for sale. The work had been added to the side of a building in 2014, in conjunction with a town […]

Banksy’s Dismaland and the Power of Parody

Posted on: August 28, 2015 by Alexander Herman

Last week, the Banksy-organised theme park known as Dismaland opened in the English seaside town of Weston-super-mare, billed specifically as a place ‘unsuitable for children’. The park has already been reported and commented on thoroughly in the media, notably by The Guardian and in Boodle Hatfield’s blog, for its twist on traditional notions of amusement parks and family-friendly enjoyment. Here […]