"Graffiti Artists Awarded $6.7 Million for Destroyed 5Pointz Murals"

[1] Ruling that graffiti - a typically transient form of art - was of sufficient stature to be protected by the law, a federal judge in Brooklyn awarded a judgment of $6.7 million on Monday to 21 graffiti artists whose works were destroyed in 2013 at the 5Pointz complex in Long Island City, Queens.
[2) In November, a landmark trial came to a close in Federal District Court in Brooklyn when a civil jury decided that Jerry Wolkoff, a real estate developer who owned 5Pointz, broke the law when he whitewashed dozens of swirling murals at the complex, obliterating what a lawyer for the artists had called "the world's largest open-air aerosol museum."
Which word best states the meaning of "óbliterate" as used in paragraph 2?

update

destroy

damage

preserve

Bot GPT 3.5 Bot GPT 3.5 answered

destroy