The WBALTV I-Team summarized their story on their website thus: “Art auctions on cruise ships are fun and exciting, but some passengers are wondering if they were misled. A Harford County man is among them. He's been told the signature on a $12,000 print he purchased is a forgery that's worth nothing.” The video can be seen here: http://www.wbaltv.com/
The story began when Richard English found out out that a Salvador Dalí print for which he had paid Park West Gallery $12,000 at a cruise line art auction was, according to international experts, virtually worthless. Both Nicolas Descharnes of the Descharnes Archives in France and Frank Hunter, Director of the Salvador Dalí Archives in New York, examined the print purchased by Richard English and determined that, in their opinion, the pencil signature, supposedly by Salvador Dalí, was in fact a forgery. Without the signature, the print, not very rare, might be worth a few hundred dollars at most. The false signature, very hard to remove without leaving traces or damaging the print, renders the print virtually valueless according to the experts. Richard English’s attempts to get satisfaction from Park West Gallery customer services has been, to this date, unavailing. He was offered a credit for other art from their collection stated to be of comparable value. But when told the value of your print is virtually nothing, it seemed pointless to swap it for other artwork presumably worth the same amount.
The Englishes, residents of Maryland, contacted Fine Art Registry in July 2008 asking for help regarding $25,000 worth of art purchased from Park West Gallery, among which was the Dalí print. They had received no help from Park West Gallery in their attempts to rectify the purchases which they had come to believe, through their own research, were fraudulent. Fine Art Registry introduced them to the Salvador Dalí experts and produced a video of the experts’ examination of their Dalí print. The Englishes contacted WBALTV who followed up with their investigation which included interviews with Nicolas Descharnes and Theresa Franks (Fine Art Registry CEO).
“I am still looking for Park West Gallery to provide some substantial proof of their questionable provenance or a full refund of the money we paid them,” said Richard English.
“Through our art advocacy program we have tried to help Richard English along with over 350 other individuals who have come to us for help with purchases they have made from Park West Gallery,” said Theresa Franks, Fine Art Registry CEO.”We were very pleased to see WBALTV’s investigation of the English’s trouble with Park West Gallery which is just one of many similar cases which have come to our attention. We welcome all the exposure that this widespread situation can be given.”
