Park West Gallery’s Salvador Dalí Expert, Bernard Ewell, Sued by Fine Art Registry for Defamation

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug 28, 2009 -
(Phoenix, AZ, Farmington Hills, MI – 28 August 2009). A Third Party Complaint was filed on 26 August 2009 by Fine Art Registry against Bernard Ewell, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, an appraiser and self-styled expert in the works of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, who has for years been paid by Park West Gallery, a Michigan based gallery which sells art mainly through cruise ship based art auctions, to state that the large number of Salvador Dalí prints the gallery sells are genuine and that the alleged Dalí signatures many of them bear are legitimate.

The Third Party Complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, Case No. 2:08-CV-12247 before the Hon. Lawrence P. Zatkoff, asserts that numerous statements made publicly by Ewell on his website and blog, which has prominent links on Park West Gallery’s website, are false and defamatory, interfere with Fine Art Registry business relationships, and that Ewell has conspired with Park West Gallery to destroy the excellent reputation and goodwill which Fine Art Registry has earned. On his blog, Ewell has, in concert with Park West Gallery, maintained a vicious attack on Fine Art Registry and the acknowledged Dalí experts who have assisted Fine Art Registry with its ongoing investigation into allegations of Park West’s fraudulent misrepresentation of Salvador Dalí prints they sell. The investigation by Fine Art Registry followed numerous complaints on the part of customers of Park West Gallery that they had been defrauded by Park West. A number of lawsuits, including six class action suits, against Park West Gallery on the part of its victims are in progress.

In particular, Ewell has repeatedly alleged a commercial relationship between Salvador Dalí art dealer Bruce Hochman of the Salvador Dalí Gallery and Fine Art Registry which has demonstrably never existed. Ewell has knowingly made a number of false allegations about Fine Art Registry, apparently in an attempt to protect Park West Gallery who have been paying him for at least ten years to support their claims about the Dalí prints they sell. Ewell has also defamed internationally recognized Dalí experts Robert and Nicolas Descharnes of the Descharnes Archives in Paris, relied on by Sotheby’s and Christie’s to authenticate the Dalí pieces they offer for auction, and Frank Hunter, Director of the Salvador Dalí Archives in New York, all of whom have examined Dalí prints sold by Park West and “authenticated” by Bernard Ewell, and found them to be misrepresented. In his zeal to come to his own defense and to the defense of his paymaster, Park West Gallery, Ewell, who significantly is not employed by the top auction houses for authentication, publishes many false and defamatory statements against these experts in his blog. Now the words have recoiled on the writer and he will have to defend himself in court. Loyalty to one’s master is generally a laudable thing, but in this case Ewell has overstepped the mark, published too many lies, and now his words have backfired on himself and his paymaster, Park West Gallery.

On August 26th, 2009, Bernard Ewell was mentioned in a newspaper article in Barcelona, Spain’s La Razón, which raises an eyebrow at Ewell’s self-proclaimed status of “Dalí detective”, refers to him as “detective” Ewell, and points out that Dalí’s official cataloguer, Albert Field, accuses Ewell of pirating his (Field’s) work and severely questions the validity of Ewell’s methods. More importantly, the article states that the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation in Figueres, Spain, has declared that Ewell’s claims that he was invited to the Foundation as a Dalí expert are false.

Don Payton of Kaufman, Payton & Chapa, representing Fine Art Registry in the case against Ewell and Park West, said: "On behalf of Global Fine Art Registry (FAR), we have been forced to file a third party action against Park West's retained, so-called expert, Bernard Ewell due to malicious and defamatory comments made by him on his website blog. He has made numerous false, unsupportable and unverified statements about FAR, its employees, The Salvador Dali Gallery and the world's most renowned Dali experts, Mr. Nicholas Descharnes and Mr. Frank Hunter.  Additionally, Ewell has sought to discredit FAR to its customers, members, readers, etc. in an attempt to put FAR out of business. This new action by FAR will set the record straight and punish this wannabe expert where it really hurts – his pocketbook."

Jonathan Schwartz, another attorney at Kaufman, Payton & Chapa, representing Fine Art Registry and some of the victims suing Park West, said, “We look forward to protecting the excellent reputation of FAR and proving the truth of the enlightening investigations by FAR in the course of this litigation. The result will be beneficial not just to FAR but also to the art market in general, and collectors of Salvador Dalí artwork in particular.”

By this Third Party Complaint, Ewell has been added as a defendant in the ongoing litigation of Fine Art Registry with Park West Gallery in the US District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan.

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10324863/1