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Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Graffiti has come a long way since the 1970s when fly-by-night taggers sprayed their work on bridge abutments or subway cars then slipped away before the authorities arrived. These days, fashion labels use it in their photo shoots. Huge corporations include it in their ad campaigns. In museums and auction houses, it has been rebranded with a classy new name: aerosol art.
On Tuesday, however, a trial began in Brooklyn that will eventually determine whether graffiti, despite its transient nature, should be recognized as art to the point of being protected by federal law. The trial, which is likely to explore broad questions of aesthetics, property rights and the relationship between the arts and gentrification, has, at its heart, pitted more than 20 graffiti artists whose work appeared in the beloved 5Pointz complex in Long Island City, Queens, against the owner of the buildings who demolished both them and the art adorning their walls.
5Pointz was a rare collaboration between a real-estate developer and a group of street artists. In 1993, when Long Island City was beset by crime, the developer, Jerry Wolkoff, allowed a crew of taggers to decorate his buildings at 45-46 Davis Street with a wild array of colorful, swirling murals.
For 20 years, 5Pointz was an offbeat tourist destination that not only attracted thousands of visitors, but also helped transformed Long Island City into the thriving residential neighborhood it is today. 5Pointz eventually became “the world’s largest open-air aerosol museum,” in the words of Eric Baum, a lawyer for the artists, but its existence was always predicated on Mr. Wolkoff tearing it down and developing the complex, which he ultimately did in 2014.
Before the demolition, the artists tried several times to stop it — asking city officials to grant the complex landmark status, even attempting to buy 5Pointz themselves, Mr. Baum said. They filed suit in Federal District Court in Brooklyn shortly after Mr. Wolkoff destroyed their art, sending in a team of painters to whitewash the graffiti.
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