Park West In the News

The Detroit Free Press is reporting a Michigan Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court and re-instated a suited brought by a woman who claims she purchased $165,000 in fake Salvador Dali art. This is a continuation of battle from the purchase of Dali's Divne Comedy puchased on a cruise ship for $150,000 in 1999.  According to the DFP The lower court had ruled the statute of limitations had run out, but the appeals court felt there should be additional time allowed for the suit, agreeing with the Plaintiff that the due diligence was in fact started because they were relying upon Park West authentications and expertise.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

The Detroit Free Press reports

The Michigan Court of Appeals has given a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims she bought $165,000 in faked Salvador Dali artwork new life by overturning a lower court decision that had dismissed the suit in 2012 over a technicality.

Mattie King and her now-deceased husband bought the Divine Comedy collection from Park West Gallery in Southfield on a cruise ship in 1999; the $150,000 set of 100 pieces came with certificates of authenticity and appraisals, according to court documents.

A decade later, when trying to sell the art, the plaintiff said she was told by an expert that the signatures might be forgeries. Park West said its own experts authenticated the signatures.

She sued Park West in 2011, but the next year the case was dismissed in Oakland County Circuit Court because the statute of limitations had run out and the court said King had not done her due diligence.

For some counts, the defendants said that the statute of limitations — six years — had already run out on her claim and she didn’t conduct due diligence to extend it, which the lower court agreed with.

The appeals court, however, agreed with King’s argument that the gallery’s alleged fraud prevented her from finding out the Dali signatures were bogus and that because of the gallery’s expertise, she wasn’t negligent in relying on their assurances about authenticity.

“We are pleased that the Michigan Court of Appeals has decided that Ms. King’s case should proceed to trial. We believe that our client was wronged by Park West and this appellate opinion allows her to present her case to a jury,” King’s lawyers said in an e-mail to the Detroit Free Press.

“The Court of Appeals’ decision touched on only one side aspect of the case. We look forward to the case going back to the court and being dismissed on a variety of grounds not even addressed by the Court of Appeals,” the gallery’s lawyer Rodger Young said in a telephone interview.

Source: The Detroit Free Press