Art

The hits just keep coming for G&M Realty, the Queens real estate company that lost a landmark case against a group of graffiti and aerosol artists for whitewashing their work on a sprawling set of buildings it owned in Long Island City, Queens. The developer must now pay more than $2 million in attorney fees on top of the $6.75 million initially awarded to the artists who sued the company for violating the Visual Artist Rights Act (VARA) in 2018. The decision issued this month, first reported by Law360, brings the total fees paid out by G&M Realty to a whopping $8.75 million in a case widely seen as critical for the rights of graffiti artists and others whose work lacks an established market value. Eric Baum, the attorney who represented the artists, says the outcome “will encourage attorneys to accept challenging art law cases and ensure that… [epcl_button label="Read Full Story" url="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/5pointz-additional-2m-attorney-fees-1927310" type="gradient" color="light-blue" size="small" icon="fa-book" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"][/epcl_button]