The year 1999 went by and my rep and I worked together in a degree of harmony. I was painting close to ten paintings every month and he would send a courier service to pick them up from my studio and they shipped them abroad in wooden crates. I'm glad it was he and not I who was paying those expenses!
From time to time he would show up at my studio and there I had the opportunity to also offer him some paintings which were more to my liking, more realistic and "less colorful". Usually he would accept them but would say, "Well, I will take them but I can't guarantee you that I will sell them. If I can't, I'll return them to you and you can repaint them or change them for others," Bear in mind, if you recall, that the first time he visited my studio in November 1995 he loudly declared, "I will buy everything!"
Also on those occasions we used to talk about other things. Mostly he used to love to tell me about his private life, like a teenager, completely immature and unscrupulous; there was something shameful in his accounts of that part of his life, he being about thirty-one years old, and I being a fifty-three year old married man with four children. I had to stop those conversations without being offensive, because they were unpleasant to me. He was also always planning new projects, trying to grow and expand, moving houses, buying and so on. At the end of that year it was noticeable that his financial situation made a drastic 180° turnaround. Not that he was badly off before. This young man was born and grew up in the wealthiest neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. He never went to university or acquired a formal profession. According to him, he liked business and for that reason, so he told me, years before having just completed certain duties that are required in my country after finishing high school, he took some cheap paintings rolled up under his arm and flew to that other continent to sell them. At that time I saw that as quite an achievement for someone so young and it showed that, on one hand, that young man was enterprising and brave; but his future successes would show that as a result of his longings for "enterprise" he has in general left several victims behind in his rapid path to personal riches.
This young agent had the tendency to say something or promise to do something and when the time came, to change his position or twist things, at least to gradually change his version of what had previously been promised by him to something that was totally outside the agreement. He had a tendency to blend into things, like a chameleon. When one took him to task on something, he generally gave very strange, half-convincing excuses so that in the end one came out of it accepting his position, because one had by then lost track of what he had said due to so many changes in his version of the matter. This was especially true for me as I was gradually falling totally into his greedy and unscrupulous web. The facts I have yet to recount will explain exactly the ambivalence of this individual, his covetous, lying and immature personality, as a result of which I have suffered so much as a person and as an artist, as have my family, my friends and consequently the people who love my art as well.
An example is what he did to me in the middle of 1996 when he was for a while, so he said, in financial straits because an art dealer had tricked him and sued him in New York, a lawsuit which he said cost him a great deal of time and money.
What happened to me at that time is as follows: he called me on the phone from Florida and made a very unusual request, which was that I produce 12 abstract paintings for him in the style of the abstracts which he had seen on various occasions at my studio. He asked me to make these large and said that he would sell them in the USA. Well, he never did sell them, nor did he pay me for that month's work while I was busy with this project, which meant that I was not able to paint the ten paintings in the Impressionist style which since the end of 1995 he had been buying from me. In time I understood that this juggling trick he played was only to avoid having to pay me for a month’s work. In other words, for that month I received no income from him. I always reminded him of that ugly affair and he always gave me strange excuses. In time I understood why he never paid me for them and the reason he never sold them: this will become clear later on when I cover the relationship between my rep and the "Big Boss."
Years later when we were no longer working together he wanted to send me back those paintings, but since I was no longer living in Israel but in another country, it would have been a problem for me to keep them so I asked him to send them from where he was to a gallery in North Carolina with which I worked in the middle of 2005. Only eleven of the twelve pieces arrived at that gallery and one of the largest was missing. When I told him about this he said he had only ever seen eleven paintings in his place in that country. At that time I was not feeling well or strong enough to get him to return the missing painting as well. In other words, he kept those pieces for over nine years without paying me and without returning them. It was one of many failures on the part of this rep to stick to his agreements.
You will recall that he had set up the center of his business operations in Florida in 1998 and therefore his visits to my studio occurred on those various occasions when he came to Israel. He was now married and had a son. On the subject of his marriage towards the end of 1999 or early in 2000, I don’t recall exactly, I do remember that he boasted with great pride that the Big Boss and his wife along with the chief auctioneer of "The Gallery" had flown to our country specially on that occasion. Actually now I remember that I too had been invited and I saw the Big Boss from afar trying to get his feet coordinated while he was dancing a sort of salsa with his wife, a small lady, restrained and very charming, a total contrast with the physical size of her eccentric and loud husband. He looked very ridiculous as always. The Big Boss did not approach me and neither did I him. This was the second time I had the unfortunate experience of seeing him; thank God this time it was from far off.
It was a very ostentatious outdoor wedding in a very wealthy coastal city in Israel. Many guests came and among them I recognized one or two of the other artists whom he also represented, one of whom is from Israel, who has lived and worked for a long time in Florida. I understand he has some kind of working relationship with my ex-rep. This will also become very clear when I relate the horrible events between the years 2000 and 2004.
Up to that time I was still not sure of the nature of the relationship between my rep and the Big Boss but by the presence of the Big Boss and his wife and that somber-faced auctioneer, almost "part of the family" at my agent's wedding, made me realize how "close" they were considering they had known each other for such a short time as I understood it at that time.
A little later I asked my agent how things were going with the "The Big Company" and he told me they were going well and that we would soon see the results. As usual, he gave me no details.
At the beginning of September 1999, my agent arrived at my studio with a renewal or extension of the old contract from March 1996, this time for the next five years, in other words until September 2004.
The contract was very simple, stating that it was a continuation which included all the details of the previous one with some changes in the prices of the paintings, numbers of prints per limited edition, and percentages. The content regarding his exclusivity and my author's rights remained the same as in the previous contract.
This contract was also drawn up in Hebrew and without any translation or any legal supervision, signatures of lawyers or anything else; just our signatures and nothing else. However, in this contract my rep's signature was different from the previous one which had been signed in Hebrew, and this time you could clearly read his first and last names in Roman letters. Another interesting detail of this contract is that for the first time his company name appeared on it, although there was no address or country since this one was an extension of the previous contract from 1996 which bore my agent's gallery and address in Israel.
My signature for contracts, checks and other legal papers is different from my artist's signature in which my surname can be clearly read.
It is very important to note that both contracts, the first one in 1996 and the new one in 1999, were drawn up and signed in Hebrew. They were both drawn up and signed in Israel between citizens of that country.
Up to the time of this extension to the contract, I still did not know that my rep was already working with "The Big One" although I suspected it. I didn't know exactly when he started because he said no more to me about it than a vague indication that he was in "talks" with them and there was nothing definite yet.
I also told him that we had been working together now since the end of 1995 and that I still saw no advertising or promotion by him of my artistic work anywhere, apart from a few photos of my work and their prices (fifteen times what he paid me for them!) in some sales catalogs of the chain of galleries which I happened to get hold of. I was under the impression that he was still working with them. What upset me a great deal was his always telling me that he spent a lot of time on advertising, but each time I looked through an art magazine of that country in which his company placed large ads and gave his artists a full page, I never saw my name among them. This bothered me a great deal and each time I asked him about it he would tell me that soon he would do a big promotion for me. In that way he kept me hanging on, always expecting a future promotional campaign.
Once I suggested to him that he put on an exhibition of my works over there, since he had been working with my paintings for so long, to which he gave a very strange answer: "That's very expensive and not very effective...we'll see...one day we might do it...etc." Also on that occasion I demanded that he explain to me his program for selling my paintings and which galleries he was working with on my pieces. He answered that there were about twelve galleries throughout the country and also some in Europe. He didn't want to tell me the names of the galleries and with regard to the "program" he said nothing.
Since I depended so heavily on him financially I did not squeeze him too much on these matters for fear that he would stop buying my work. This fear arose in me after one time when I complained very clearly to him that he was not doing much to promote me to which he answered: "Don't think that people are lining up to buy your paintings," which left me astonished. I asked him if he was buying my paintings out of charity and, if he didn't sell them then what was he doing with them, to which he answered something else which left me open mouthed: "Now you see how much I sacrifice myself on your behalf." Good God! I remained rooted on the spot, full of fear, and from then on I decided not to ask anything else about those things and that he could do what he wanted because I was stuck to him in a contract covering the next five years, and there was nothing for me to do except to hope that those would pass as quietly as possible until the contract ran out and then I would never again work with this worthless liar.
One day at the beginning of the year 2000 he tried to set my fears at rest with regard to my complaints about the virtually nonexistent promotion he was doing on my behalf. He told me that he was soon going to give me a great promotional boost at the Millennium Expo of NY coming up in March of that year. He told me that this Expo was the Mecca of the International art exhibitions and especially this year as it was the Millennium, as if I didn't know it. I had already been successful at that Expo in 1994. He told me and assured me that this time I would have a special at this Expo. He told me he had reserved and rented four stands for his company and that one whole stand would be to show my work and that he had also rented the two walls of the huge entrance to the famous, huge Jacob K. Javits Exhibition and Convention Center, to display one of the largest paintings of mine that he had and that he would exhibit it on the wall to the right of the entrance, and on the left would be a painting by his great friend and painter whom I referred to earlier and who later I understood was a kind of partner of his.
We left it that he would pay for my flight and my stay in that city for a week. I was very happy that I could finally see that something was beginning to move in the direction of the promotion of my works.
In March, the time came for me to fly to New York. I gave the great news to a couple of very good friends of mine from another country and they said they would fly in to New York where the Expo was being held, specially for the event so as to spend a few days with me there. We left it that we would meet at the hotel so as to go to the Expo together. I told them enthusiastically that my rep had hung one of my pieces no more and no less than at the very entrance of the grand Expo!
The three of us arrived, very excited, to visit the Millennium 2000 Expo. The day was quite cold and cloudy. Before going in, the three of us stopped outside at the bottom of the entrance steps to admire the size of that huge exhibition hall and the incredible excitement going on around the outside. On a wing next to the building in huge letters, hanging like flags, the international fine perfume Expo was announced, also showing on the same day. Everything was festive, elegant and magnificent!
We went up and my heart was pounding because the expectancy of seeing one of my works exhibited no less than at the entrance to this important international event was very significant to me. When we approached the entrance and looked for my painting which my rep had promised to hang we didn't find it on the wall on the right as my rep had promised. On the contrary, instead of my painting I found that on both walls to right and left of the entrance were two large paintings by this other artist to whom I referred who seemed like my rep's partner.
We felt very disappointed and upset by this farce. I personally was left with the feeling that I was a liar. But my friends calmed me down, telling me that we must have made a mistake about the entrance since the place was so huge and according to them my painting was probably hanging on another wall at one of the three entrances. We went to look but there was nothing of mine there!
But that's nothing compared to what I discovered later in those same exhibition stands hired by my rep. At the suggestion of one of my friends and so that I would calm down before going to my agent's stand - because I was about to explode - we went around some of the hundreds of stands which were there so that we could understand the arrangement of the stands according to importance: Platinum, Gold, Silver, etc.
An hour later, after walking around the different passageways of the exhibition hall and after having drunk some coffee outside on one of the terraces at the facility and feeling less tense and more settled down we decided it was time to visit the stand.
At the entrance there was a little table with catalogs of various artists represented by my agent. There, at least, I started to find out whom he represented. The two largest parts were the entrance to the four stands and were very well lit. There were many paintings by the other artists hanging there. Naturally I looked for mine but there weren't any in those first stands. As I was going in I started to think that my rep had forgotten to exhibit my work there!
My heart almost burst with such a startling disappointment! Meanwhile my friends were walking around and distancing themselves a bit because they felt I was about to explode and I think they understood that I needed to demand some answers as to what was happening there and for the sake of discretion they decided to wait for me outside the stand while I was finding out what the devil was going on.
I approached a sort of stand on the left hand side, much smaller (about a meter by a meter) than the other two which were each more than four meters by four meters; this section was also very close to a sort of storage room for unframed works, in other words, it was the least important and poorest of the whole area.
In this small section on a three-panel folding screen there were two or three of my serigraphs on display, one of medium size, signed by my hand and in my writing and another larger one which I recognized as one of the ones that were in the process of being printed. I had not yet been called to sign them, and the fact that this one was signed seemed very strange to me. So I came much closer to have a look at the signature. To my surprise and horror I found that it was not my writing. My rep who was standing next to me still trying to make excuses for the fact that my painting which he had promised to hang to the right of the entrance to the Expo wasn't there, was blushing and stammering out some other excuses.
Having come to the disconcerting conclusion that someone had tried to imitate my signature, I turned around to my rep demanding answers about this horrific forgery of my signature. He told me more or less the following:
"It's because that serigraph is so good and seemed very sellable and we hadn't yet finished and I hadn’t called you to sign them, so I hurriedly signed this preliminary proof so that the public wouldn't ask why it was not signed."
I tried to control my nerves and rage before such magnitude of criminal effrontery, deception and fear for what I was seeing in front of my eyes. I told him he should not have done that, that he must be unaware of copyright law as it applies to an artist and that it seemed to me he had absolutely no respect for me or for my work. I told him I was beginning to regret having signed the extension to the contract for the next five years to which he answered that he would never do it again and I was completely right and that he made a big mistake, but, according to him, with the best of intentions to sell my work.
In passing I asked him where my original paintings were, the oils and acrylics. "Here," he told me, showing me the tiny storage cupboard, "Inside." And opening the little door I saw various paintings piled up inside including those of other artists. He explained to me that they were there in reserve and he was hoping to show them if there was any space available as a result of sales. It was in this way that I received full in my face the horrible truth about this lying lowlife. Had I had the financial means I would have sued him for forgery and for breach of contract through false promises that very day.
A few moments later I found my friends and we left that place, never to return. Two days later I flew back home.
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