Park West Gallery Litigation Update #1:
Park West Gallery and its Astounding Experts and Legal Contortionists
by
Fine Art Registry®
Since May 2007 we have been reporting on the business practices of Park West Gallery, as well as the legal maneuverings, lawsuits, and threats of lawsuits by Park West Gallery to its own customers, in addition to other pending class litigation against the self-proclaimed "largest art gallery on the planet." We provide the following update for our membership and readers:
Fine Art Registry® and Park West Gallery Experts Contrasted
Park West Gallery lawyers recently deposed Fine Art Registry® experts, Frank Hunter (Director of The Salvador Dalí Archives and world expert in Dali prints and graphics), Nicolas Descharnes (world expert in the original works of Salvador Dalí who authenticates Dali works for Sotheby's and Christie's) and forensic document examiner, William Flynn (Affiliated Forensic Laboratory, Inc.).
For those not familiar with legal procedure, a deposition is testimony taken under oath. A deposition is usually a private proceeding conducted behind closed doors. As we have come to learn, Park West Gallery would just as soon keep everything behind closed doors, buried in fact, and far, far away from the public eye. However, Fine Art Registry, since the spring of 2008, in the interest of educating the public, believes that the Park West Gallery effort to silence FAR® through endless litigation, is instructive and should be made public as much as possible. Despite attempts by Park West Gallery to asphyxiate us and to shroud its conduct in secrecy, Fine Art Registry has fought hard to make certain that the litigation is made a public record and that artists, collectors and anyone with an interest in the art industry and/or the art market be made aware of the events occurring in the ongoing litigation. We will continue to report on our side of the case as key issues present themselves and as we see fit.
On September 8, 2009, William Flynn's deposition was conducted in Phoenix, Arizona. Fine Art Registry retained the services of Mr. Flynn in April 2009. Specifically, Mr. Flynn was retained to examine the questioned Dalí signatures on prints that had been declared forgeries by Messrs. Hunter and Descharnes. Mr. Flynn is a world renowned expert in the area of hand writing and questioned document examination. Mr. Flynn trained in questioned documents while a detective with the Philadelphia Police Department Crime Laboratory. He was certified by the American Board of Forensic Document Examiners in 1978, shortly after its establishment. In February 2009, the Academy presented Mr. Flynn with the Ordway Hilton Award for "outstanding contributions to the field of forensic document examination." He is the author of two chapters in the recently updated Hilton text, Scientific Examination of Questioned Documents (Second Edition). Mr. Flynn has been around for a long, long time and is considered the top of his field. He has worked on some of the nation's toughest and most interesting document examination cases. For example, read about the famous Mark Hoffman hoax and the Mountain Meadows Massacre document here: http://web.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/special/crime/hoax.htm.
On September 10 and 11, 2009, Fine Art Registry CEO was in Manhattan, to attend the depositions of Frank Hunter and Nicolas Descharnes. All of the Fine Art Registry experts agree in their written expert reports that the pencil signatures on the Park West Gallery Dalí prints they had examined were forged, or were fake prints with forged signatures. Details will be forthcoming in the near future on the specific findings of each of the Fine Art Registry experts and we are anxious to make their opinions public.
Frank Hunter and Nicolas Descharnes examine a forged Dali print.
Frank Hunter (left), Nicolas Descharnes (center), and Richard English (right)
Now, don't look for Park West Gallery to come clean any time soon on any of the opinions of their so-called experts (Daniel David, Eduard Fornés, and Bernard Ewell) because quite frankly, as we see it, they don't want the public to know. You won't see Park West Gallery publishing online for public viewing their written expert reports. Oh no! It would be too embarrassing for them. They also know that Fine Art Registry would tear them apart on the evidence, easily contradicting everything their experts have been paid handsomely to say on Park West's behalf. Logically, if Park West Gallery has so much faith in their so called experts, we say, why not publish the written reports of their experts, so we can all get to the truth? But truth be told, the three Park West Gallery experts don't have much to offer their lord and master. Let's take a look at the facts Fine Art Registry discovered long ago and as we know them so far today. Just so it is clear, Fine Art Registry gained all of the facts and evidence stated here long before any litigation commenced and through sources who publicly disseminated and freely published and released this information - like Bernie Ewell, for example, Park West's darling authenticator, whose loose lips might just sink a ship or two. As long as the 1st Amendment of the Constitution is still an unalienable right in the U.S., Fine Art Registry will continue to tell it like it is. So here we go:
It's well known that one of its named experts in the litigation, Daniel David, who represents himself as current Director of Les Heures Claires (where a good number of the Divine Comedy prints that Park West sells are sourced from) sold a significant number of Dalí Divine Comedy inventory to Park West Gallery over the years. Now, just imagine if you are Daniel David who sold these questioned and spurious prints over the last decade or so to Park West Gallery. With all the litigation flying, what would you do at this point? Lawyer up? Flee? Well, consider this. If Park West Gallery has absolutely no reservations whatsoever about suing their own customers (which they have done and continue to threaten), how much more likely is it that they will sue or perhaps strong arm and threaten to sue its own suppliers or its lone Dali authenticator, Ewell? Hmmm! Given this scenario then, Daniel David and Ewell have every incentive to serve their master Park West Gallery.
The evidence of Daniel David's involvement is included in scores of Park West Gallery "authentication packages" that date back (as far as Fine Art Registry has records) to 2003 when Park West representatives (Bill Smith and Morris Shapiro) mailed to many victims, letters and attestations signed by Daniel David assuring victims of the veracity of the Park West Dali Divine Comedy prints (and in particular the Dalí signature) they purchased (but it is important to point out that these packages would only be mailed when protest was made - or when a Park West customer questioned the artwork or demanded a refund) which in no way was sufficient evidence of iron clad provenance and far from being verifiable by anyone with any credibility as we will illustrate below. In other words, it was and still is today, impossible to verify any of the subject matter contained in the Park West provenance documents, including the attestations signed by Daniel David, Jean Estrade and scores of other hazy individuals who have been major suppliers to Park West Gallery. Now suddenly, after having supplied Park West Gallery with many of the Divine Comedy prints that are at issue in this litigation and the nationwide class actions as well, Daniel David is suddenly Park West Gallery's "expert" witness for trial. It baffles the mind.
Note too that Bernard Ewell (who blogs on and on about his affection and appreciation for Daniel David) is the one that authenticated the Park West Gallery Dali inventory (including the Dali inventory Park West purchased from Daniel David). So are you getting the picture here? This kind of partiality and prejudice with Park West Gallery experts prevents objective consideration in any way, shape or form.
The third Park West Gallery expert, Eduard Fornés, has been hired by Park West to authenticate the prints already authenticated by one of its suppliers of the Divine Comedy, Marc Ways. Yes, that's right - they hired Fornés to authenticate what has already been authenticated (Park West claims) if that makes any sense at all, which it doesn't. Park West Gallery calls it the "Marc Ways Collection". Mind you, this is the very same collection that Bernard Ewell had already authenticated - TWICE. And this is also the very same collection that the attorneys for Park West Gallery recently were required to travel to Europe (three times) to verify (to further authenticate the authentication of the authentication). But heck, the newly hired lawyers were interested in a nice trip to Europe on Park West Gallery's dime, so why not? Three times must be a charm, right? Or was that four times? But who's counting?
So the newly hired Park West Gallery lawyer (the ex-g man) Bob Goldman (who is DEFINITELY NOT a Dalí authenticator) also claims to have verified and authenticated the very authentication that was authenticated twice before by Bernie Ewell, and once (as far as we know) by Marc Ways. If reading this makes your head spin, or if it sounds confusing, it certainly is and we haven't even mentioned yet that threaded through all this is Park West Gallery's contention that Jean Estrade (the Editor of Les Heures Claires and now deceased) authenticated this very same collection too, sometime in 2004 or early 2005, just a few months before he passed away. How was this done?
According to Park West Gallery provenance, Jean Estrade signed his name on the reverse of the Divine Comedy prints and (Park West claims) in doing so he [Estrade] authenticated the pencil signature of Dalí on the front of the print (which incredibly Marc Ways claims in provenance documents that he had Dali apply to thousands upon thousands of prints some 30 years prior and without a contract with Dali.). The Estrade signatures were applied AFTER the prints left the possession of Marc Ways, and just before Jean Estrade died in September 2005. Now, how is it that Estrade, more than 30 years after the fact, can divine, in 2004 or 2005, and just months before he died the authenticity of signatures allegedly made by Dalí on prints for Marc Ways in 1972 and 1973? Oh, yes, that's right. There are those Marc Ways self-prepared affidavits (or attestations as they are called in the Park West authentication packages) written by Marc Ways that weren't even in existence until the Marc Ways inventory was sold to Park West. Fine Art Registry calls this "provenance on demand," which is NEVER acceptable under any circumstances.
Now there was also another player in all of this mess that we haven't mentioned (for now he shall remain nameless - we'll just call him a middle man), which complicates the Park West provenance even more, if that's possible. This middle man is the one that actually acquired or purchased the "Marc Ways Collection" from Marc Ways who allegedly shipped it [the middle man that is, not Marc Ways] to Jean Estrade in France for his signature on the reverse of the prints (as stated above) thereby automatically declaring them authentically signed by Dali (so they say) and then back to the middle man for shipment to the U.S., then on to Bernard Ewell for further authentication and then eventually sold to Park West Gallery and ultimately making it into the distribution chain and peddled aboard cruise ships to unsuspecting customers. Got it? Whew! And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Wait until Fine Art Registry reports on the other characters who supplied Park West Gallery with the bottomless pit of alleged signed Dali prints. The provenance on these deals are equally mind blowing.
The preceding illustrates just how complicated, convoluted, complex and confusing the Park West Gallery provenance is to verify - even for the most sophisticated in the business. If this weren't such a serious public policy issue with hundreds if not thousands of victims left holding the bag, it would almost be laughable. The Park West provenance is meant to confuse. The more perplexing the provenance, the less chance that anyone will figure out the sleight of hand. They bank on the fact that no one will be the wiser - that no one has the energy to take the time to unwind the tangled web - with the exception of Fine Art Registry and its experts, of course, who have figured it out much to the frustration of Park West Gallery.
Recently, Fine Art Registry contacted Enrique Sabater, secretary to the Master painter, Salvador Dalí from 1968 to 1981. He was with Dalí constantly throughout these years and has revealed some eye-opening facts concerning Fornés. Moreover, Mr. Sabater weighs in on the Divine Comedy prints that Park West acquired from Marc Ways, a nebulous character in this outrageous charade forwarded by Park West Gallery. Mr. Sabater reported to Fine Art Registry that he never knew Marc Ways and that he [Ways] had never met Dali in any meaningful way. So how is it that Marc Ways had thousands upon thousands of the Divine Comedy prints signed by Dalí at the Hotel Meurice without a written contract with Dali and presumably free of charge (which in itself is incredible) as the Park West Gallery provenance claims, without Mr. Sabater ever seeing or meeting Marc Ways? It doesn't pass the smell test and is curious indeed. We will be reporting much more from Mr. Sabater in the near future. The bottom line: Not only does Enrique Sabater claim that Eduard Fornés is not an expert in Dali authentication, Fornés has recently been accused of wrong doing in a recently published Spanish article. Fornés is a complete nonentity in the authentication of Dalí works of art and if pressed we seriously doubt he would be able to figure out the deep, dark mysteries of the Park West Gallery provenance if put to the test.
Further, Ewell, Daniel David, and Eduard Fornés are all affectionately in bed together and have every incentive, motivation, and a substantial financial interest to proclaim forever more and until the sun ceases to rise in the east, that every single print from the Divine Comedy or Biblia Sacra series that Park West Gallery acquired and has sold to thousands of its customers is indeed genuinely signed by the hand of Dali. After all, it's not much of a stretch to imagine that Ewell, Daniel David, and Fornés stand to lose substantially if Park West Gallery decides to turn on its lone authenticator and its suppliers and business partners and bite the hands that feed it. That old saying holds true. There is no honor among thieves. Conflicts of roles abound between Park West Gallery and its experts. As far as Fine Art Registry is concerned, the Park West experts have a considerable pecuniary and self interest in the outcome of this case and (though they will never admit to it) they all know that the litigation could be expanded to include them if Park West Gallery decided to turn on them. The Park West experts are far from impartial, independent third parties. They are bought and paid for.
In stark contrast to the way Park West Gallery experts pander and pimp themselves, it is important to note that Fine Art Registry has paid ZERO dollars to experts for their assistance in the cruise ship art auction investigation. Frank Hunter and Nicolas Descharnes have received no financial benefit to date from Fine Art Registry for the expertise they have provided to many, many Park West Gallery victims. Moreover, Nicolas Descharnes and Frank Hunter have not been paid a single dollar or a single Euro for the videos they appeared in and which are published on www.SalvadorDaliFakes.com. They did all of this work gratis - as a matter of public policy and because they care about the reputation of Salvador Dali as well as the fakes and the forgeries flooding the market that continue to circulate like counterfeit bills.
Frank Hunter and Nicolas Descharnes examine a forged Dali print.
Frank Hunter (left), Nicolas Descharnes (center), Richard and Wanda Drake (right)
Fine Art Registry is pleased that Frank Hunter, Nicolas Descharnes and William Flynn have agreed to testify on behalf of Fine Art Registry at the trial in February 2010. We look forward to their participation and testimony. We sincerely thank each one of them for their professional, impartial, and unbiased service in this important litigation. These individuals have also kindly agreed to act as experts for the Plaintiffs or the victims that have sued Park West Gallery, which include but are not limited to Sharon Day and Julian Howard and others involved in the Sharon Day and Julian Howard litigation who have purchased Dalí prints from Park West that were found by the experts to be forged. We also have other exemplary experts on board with Fine Art Registry including Roy Saper of Saper Galleries in Michigan and Carl Britton, a graphics publisher who you will be hearing about in the near future. All have agreed to testify on behalf of Fine Art Registry and the victims in the upcoming court trials. We will be reporting on these experts and their opinions concerning the Park West Gallery artwork in the near future.
The Park West Gallery Legal Contortionists - the Greatest Show on Earth
Normally, Fine Art Registry would not report on the lawyers representing the parties in this litigation as lawyers for the most part are paid to do a job. However, where Park West Gallery is concerned, nothing is as it seems. The lawyers for Park West Gallery don't seem to understand that they cross significant boundaries that put them squarely in the position of either becoming witnesses in the current litigation (two lawyers representing Park West Gallery are already listed as fact witnesses) or at the very least fair game for commentary. True to form, at the depositions of the Fine Art Registry experts, the lawyers for Park West Gallery didn't disappoint.
Generally speaking, only one lawyer for each side attends a deposition. The reason for this is obvious. It's just not practical or economical for a client to be billed for two lawyers at a single deposition. It's exceedingly expensive to require a client to pay for multiple attorneys to attend a deposition when the second attorney can just as easily read the transcript of the deposition at a later time. After all, no matter how many lawyers show up for a deposition on behalf of a party, only one lawyer representing that party is permitted to address the witness and ask questions in a deposition, so it is generally considered overkill to have two lawyers show up, especially if both are considered senior lawyers. In this case, however, we realize that ex-g man, Goldman (aka the Dancing Bear) is like a fish out of water when it comes to civil litigation - he's a bit in over his head coming from the criminal prosecution field and there is no question he relies on his female counterpart to help him with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He questions witnesses as if they were perps [perpetrators] off the street - never a good thing in the civil litigation, especially when you are dealing with respected experts in their field - like Hunter, Descharnes and Flynn. And for some reason, the ex-g man thinks it's exemplary to directly insult, mock, taunt and scream at the CEO of Fine Art Registry even though Fine Art Registry counsel is present. It is never permissible for opposing counsel to directly speak with a litigant who is represented and has counsel present. Oh well, we guess Goldman will catch on sooner or later. Perhaps by the time trial rolls around, he'll be able to ride the civil litigation bike without any training wheels.
To provide some perspective, Fine Art Registry had one lawyer attend each of the most recent depositions of Nicolas Decsharnes, Frank Hunter, and William Flynn. Park West Gallery on the other hand had four people show up for each deposition - two lawyers and two consultants. That's a whopping four to one. It was the usual Park West Gallery circus with the "Dancing Bear" in the center ring, all of them juggling and going through the motions, pretending to perform, but lacking the most important element - art industry knowledge. Also lacking was a keen understanding of art connoisseurship versus forensics and an ardent sense of what provenance is and what it means. Finally, they all exhibited a complete disconnect regarding the standards and nuances in the fine art industry as well as the fine art market place. The sheer waste in attorneys' and consultant fees is staggering to contemplate especially when one considers that the fees paid by Park West Gallery to these lawyers and their consultants could be used to refund victims.
During a break in the Nicolas Descharnes deposition, crossing the boundaries of ethical conduct as they have done from the beginning with Fine Art Registry (never a level playing field with these guys), a lawyer for Park West - the female counterpart (mentioned above), purposefully eavesdropped and/or spied on a privileged and private attorney-client conversation between Fine Art Registry CEO Theresa Franks and her lawyer, Don Payton, wherein certain legal strategies were being discussed. A short while later, while still on break from the deposition proceeding, the female lawyer (with the firm of Young & Susser) revealed herself from behind a closed door and confronted CEO Theresa Franks, (when attorney for Fine Art Registry, Don Payton was NOT present) and intentionally communicated directly with Theresa Franks and said that she had heard the "strategy" discussed and further told Ms. Franks that it [the strategy] "won't work." The impropriety of this conduct goes without saying. Whether or not the Fine Art Registry strategy will or won't work remains to be seen. We will gladly keep Fine Art Registry members and readers updated.
It has become all too clear that Park West Gallery is becoming more desperate by the day and so too their attorneys who have crossed the line of professionalism and ethical responsibility which isn't surprising, given Park West Gallery's historical conduct since May 2007. It wasn't enough for Park West Gallery lawyers and investigators to try to intimidate Fine Art Registry witnesses and Fine Art Registry freelance writers in this case. As cowardly as those efforts were, we let those go and didn't report at length about it. But that is not to say we won't in the future if the conduct by Park West Gallery and its legal posse continue to go unchecked. The lawyers representing Park West have sunk to a new low of deviously spying on their adversary's private and privileged attorney-client communications. What a world!
Park West Gallery Attempts to Strangle Free Speech
Park West Gallery continues in its never ending pursuit to not only try to chill free speech, but to strangle it. Park West and its lawyers are becoming more bold and aggressive in their attempts to shut down the expression of anyone and everyone who dare speak out against their deceptive and unfair trade practices. Fine Art Registry believes it is instructive to the art industry and to art buying consumers in general to report on the litigation that's ongoing in order to raise public awareness about corporate greed and to help make the public aware of what dangers and traps await them in the unregulated art market and especially about art traders that sell spurious works aboard cruise ships. Fine Art Registry believes that it is critical for the public to know what is going on and to keep them apprised of current developments in order to help prevent or deter rip offs in the future.
Fine Art Registry received notification during the depositions of Frank Hunter and Nicolas Descharnes that Park West Gallery's counsel sent letters to Fine Art Registry lawyers demanding that certain recent articles published by Fine Art Registry be immediately removed from the Fine Art Registry web site. In particular, Park West demanded that Fine Art Registry remove or retract (in your wildest dreams Park West) the English translation of the article published in the Spanish newspaper, LA RAZON as Park West Gallery claimed it was defamatory. Fine Art Registry didn't write or publish the article in the LA RAZON newspaper. We merely translated it from Spanish to English and with gracious permission from the LA RAZON newspaper and the reporter, Victor Fernandez, we published it. Will there never be an end to the Park West Gallery arrogance that they think they can control everyone and everything in the universe? Amazingly, Park West also took issue with the recent Law.com article that was published which was also referenced on the Fine Art Registry web site. Like the LA RAZON article, Fine Art Registry was reporting what others had already written and we merely directly commented on quotes made in that article by Park West lawyer, (and ex-g man) Goldman. So what's the problem? Maybe Goldman regrets his quotes and wants to retract them. Whatever the case, either the quotes from Goldman are true or they are not true. We simply reported on what he stated in that article.
Notwithstanding Park West's demands, Fine Art Registry told Park West Gallery and its lawyers to go pound sand! Park West should know by now that they will not throttle Fine Art Registry and its reporting of the truth. There are far too many victims depending on Fine Art Registry to continue to disclose the facts as we discover them.
Breaking Updates
On Friday, September 11, 2009, Fine Art Registry learned that Park West Gallery has decided to voluntarily dismiss its counterclaims against the Vallillos for defamation. The Vallillos sued Park West Gallery, along with Sharon Day, Julian Howard and others for fraud and other claims. Park West Gallery punished these Plaintiffs for filing suit as they always do by turning around and suing them all (with the exception of Plaintiffs Vivian Best and Heidi Rice) for defamation and slander. The Vallillos' case study is posted on FAR. We would like to think Park West Gallery is having a change of heart. Why not do the right thing Park West and dismiss the counterclaims pending against your other customers - Al Best, Sharon Day and Julian Howard, Debi Austin, and Martha Szostak? And while you are at it, why not dismiss the claims against Frank Hunter, too.
Finally, Fine Art Registry is calling for all those residing in the U.S. and especially in the UK who believe they may have been the subject of a cruise art auction rip off. If you feel you have been a victim of unfair and deceptive trade practices, please email us immediately at with specific details.
Stay tuned for many more future reports and updates on Fine Art Registry concerning the litigation against Park West Gallery. We have some very interesting reports and stories that are developing and that we will publish soon.
— by Fine Art Registry®
| September 16, 2009
Discuss on FAR® Forum
|
Print
|
Fine Art News Feed
View all Articles
