Another Art Scheme

Fellow appraiser Bob Corey sent me an article from the Naples News on a gallery owner who talked investors into purchasing fake paintings by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, amongst others and to roll sales proceeds over into additional art purchases and sales flips.  Similar to an art Ponzi scheme.  There is currently one lawsuit, and more are expected against James Batson, of Jamali Fine Arts, an art gallery on Naples’ Fifth Avenue South. The Naples News tried contact Batson for comment through email and the website at InvestmentArtworks.com but was not succesful

The article is an interesting read, and shows how easily investors can be tricked  and pulled deeper in these schemes. Make sure to read some of the posted comments below the article as well, some less than sympathetic toward the plaintiffs.

The Naples News reports

Meanwhile in late 2006, Batson told them he’d quit his curator position at Jamali so he could focus on opening his own gallery. He asked for their financial help in purchasing art for his gallery, but they declined.

The next month, they traveled to a Miami art show, where the Smiths purchased a Picasso, sight unseen, from a foreign vendor after Batson told them it hadn’t cleared customs quick enough to be in the show.

The Smiths bought Jamalis; a dozen signed Chagall lithographs called “Twelve Tribes of Israel”; Picasso linocuts, lithographs and sketches; shares in sketches from Picasso’s sketch book; and paintings that incuded “The Miro,” “The Secret of the Rose, and “The Vigee LeBrun,” which they paid $7,281 to frame.

When Batson told them about a Picasso “Brush Painting” related to “Head of a Woman,” which was on display at the Picasso Museum in Paris, they paid $150,000 for that and a Jamali. But it was on the condition that Batson help them sell the Picasso.

“(Batson) told the Smiths that Sotheby’s thought their piece of art was quite a find and wanted to verify it in person,” the complaint says.

Batson supposedly made the trip and told them Sotheby’s authenticated it as the third in a series of three paintings, the first of which was at the Picasso Museum, and Maya Picasso, the artist’s daughter, owned the second.

When Batson told them Sotheby’s wanted the art reframed before it was auctioned, they gave him $2,300.

Batson often mentioned his gallery’s continuing construction and rental space. But it never opened and he blamed that on what he said was a recurrence of cancer. He also said he needed to move to Fort Lauderdale to “enjoy life” before undergoing chemotherapy in Naples.

At one point, Batson invited Lionel Smith to The Carlisle in Pelican Bay, which he said was his home, and showed them Jamali’s “Woman of Peace,” which they purchased for $58,000 after he told them there were many interested buyers, including professional golfer Tiger Woods.

They also paid $93,000 for a two-thirds interest in another Jamali after being told Woods also wanted it.

Batston told them the “Dora Maar” would appear in Sotheby’s May 2007 catalog. When it didn’t, he claimed he’d pulled it to have it reframed and it would be in the November catalog with the Picasso “Brush Painting.” That never happened.

To read the full article, click HERE.