Update - More on Park West Gallery

Fellow appraiser Kathi Jablonsky sent me an Art Newspaper article on the ongoing litigation issues at Park West. Park West is the large gallery which supplies much of the cruise ship industry with art and auction services. Park West claims to sell over 300,000 items of art each year totaling over $300 million.

As posted on the AW blog a couple of weeks ago on the topic (click HERE to read) of Park West being sued for selling fakes and forgeries. Park West of course denies the charges and is also suing the Fine Art Registry for defamation.

The ArtNewspaper states In the defamation complaint, Park West says that FAR and its founder, Theresa Franks, have engaged in a “smear campaign” seeking to harm its business relationships with customers and its reputation. The gallery is seeking damages and an injunction against further defamatory statements.

The ArtNewspaper continues In June 2008, Park West was sued in a consumer class action suit in federal court in Florida by David Bouverat, who says he bought art from Park West on a cruise. Mr Bouverat, who alleges violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and other claims, says that appraisals that the gallery provided were based on Park West Gallery’s price for the art, not a replacement price “from some unknown reputable retail art gallery”. The case is continuing, according to Mr Bouverat’s lawyer, Shawn Khorrami of Los Angeles. In the Michigan case, the ten plaintiffs allege that they paid amounts ranging from $7,000 to over $400,000 to Park West to buy one or more works represented to be by Goya, Marc Chagall, Dürer, Tomasz Rut and other artists, purportedly including etchings by Rembrandt and lithographs by Salvador Dalí. The transactions included purchases at cruise ship auctions and at Park West’s Michigan gallery, the allegations say. The plaintiffs say that they received certificates of authenticity and in a number of cases appraisals, and were also told in a number of cases that the art would go up in value over time. Instead, the complaint alleges, much of it is “worthless”, purportedly including in one case “images removed from an art magazine” and in other cases “digital prints which were nothing more than glorified posters”. The complaint alleges that the plaintiffs are not sophisticated art buyers, and relied on the representations the gallery made to them.

The wonderful certificates of authenticity again playing a role. In many cases, when I see a certificate of authenticity I become more suspicious of the property. Park West is a large gallery, and if the above figures are correct, with an enormous cash flow. This allows Park West to litigate and sue for defamation as well hire competent attorneys to defend against lawsuits brought against them. As I have mentioned in the past, many times appraisers will encounter cruise ship art, be skeptical, but be careful what you say and how you say in your narratives and descriptions.

To read the ArtNewspapeer article, click HERE.