Photo: Alex S. MacLean/?? 2011 Alex S. MacLean / Landslides

Long Island City’s massive shrine to graffiti culture is being whitewashed. According to the outdoor exhibit’s official Twitter account, the space was buffed last night by the building’s owner — with cops present to fend off art-loving hooligans — representing a huge symbolic defeat in the ongoing struggle to prevent 5Pointz from going the way of luxury condominiums.

5 pointz is gone, painted white overnight by the owner ..with police protection — 5 Pointz (@5PointzNYC) November 19, 2013

I repeat 5 pointz is gone ..painted white over night we almost got arrested — 5 Pointz (@5PointzNYC) November 19, 2013

“5Pointz is the world’s largest display of graffiti art, and it’s a global social hub,” Eric Felisbret, the author of Graffiti New York, told New York Magazine last month. “Now that it looks like that’s going to disappear, I’m not sure where the movement’s going to go.”

Here’s the sad work in progress, which just became the number one target in the city for a fresh coat of new graffiti:





Confirmed 5 Pointz graffiti Mecca was painted over last night pic.twitter.com/tweDokQR2Y — Stephen Nessen (@s_nessen) November 19, 2013