Fine Art Registry® Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INTERNATIONAL DALI EXPERTS AND ART CRIME POLICE FIND DALI PRINTS SOLD BY
PARK WEST AT SEA TO BE FAKE – FINE ART REGISTRY RELEASES FULL LENGTH VIDEO
(Phoenix, AZ — August 28, 2008) Global Fine Art Registry, LLC, announces the release of a 48-minute documentary video about Salvador Dalí fakes. The video includes interviews with a leading German art crime detective, Ernst Schöller, world renowned experts on Dali original works, Robert and Nicolas Descharnes, and international Dali graphics authority, Frank Hunter, Director of the Salvador Dali Archives, Ltd. They examine two prints sold by Park West Gallery for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars at cruise ship art auctions, and determine that they are fakes. In the video, Frank Hunter and Robert and Nicolas Descharnes also examine and confirm many fake Dali drawings and forged documents coming from the Torino based Albaretto family, the source of most of the Dali prints sold by Park West. Chief Detective Schöller outlines the forensic and expert evidence gathered in his investigation which demonstrated forgery of both prints and of documents presented by the Albarettos to "prove" the authenticity of the prints.
In May of 2008 two separate buyers of Dalí Sacra Biblia prints approached Fine Art Registry for help in determining the authenticity and value of their prints. Fine Art Registry arranged with experts in New York, Stuttgart and Paris to conduct an independent examination of the prints. These experts were Frank Hunter, Director of the Salvador Dalí Archives, Ltd. In New York, who assisted Albert Field in the compilation of The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali (the Dali authorized catalog of the Spanish artist's prints, etchings and other graphic work); Chief Detective Ernst Schöller, second in command of the Art and Antique Crime Unit of the Baden-Württemberg state Criminal Investigation Department, an expert on Dali forgeries; Robert and Nicolas Descharnes, father and son world renowned experts on Dali original work, used by Sotheby's and Christie's to authenticate each Dali work presented for auction.
The video which is now available for viewing on the Fine Art Registry website and which will soon also be available for purchase in High Definition on DVD, covers the examination and interviews in which these experts determine that the prints purchased are fakes. The purchasers of these prints paid in one case over $7,000 and in the other over $18,000 for what are described by the German detective as poster quality work with fake signatures on them, worth at most, if you like them $75-150 for decoration.
The prints examined are only two examples of the many, many Dali prints sold by Park West Gallery and Park West at Sea to unsuspecting cruise line passengers. The practices of the gallery, which operates mostly on cruise ships, were recently investigated and reported on in the New York Times on July 16th 2008, by CBS's Inside Edition and by Orlando Local 6 Problem Solvers. The results of Fine Art Registry's investigations into fake Dali's are published on the website www.SalvadorDaliFakes.com and these are updated regularly.
"We are continuing the investigation into the sale of fakes, including forensic testing, in order to alert the authorities and also the buying public so that they can avoid being duped into buying forged or heavily overpriced pieces," said Theresa Franks, CEO of Fine Art Registry. "This is why we have gone to trusted experts for their opinions and expertise."
For more information please see the Fine Art Registry Web site www.fineartregistry.com and www.salvadordalifakes.com. For an interview with Theresa Franks or additional information, contact David Phillips at (206) 420 8341 or by email at .
ABOUT FINE ART REGISTRY:
Fine Art Registry® is today's only high tech solution to the age old problems that have existed in the art world since before the Ancient Greeks: How to establish provenance, prove authenticity and ownership, prevent forgery and fakery, deter theft and, basically, make it possible to create, buy and sell works of art with the security of knowing that they are what they claim to be.As part of its mission to bring order to the world of art, Fine Art Registry also investigates, reports on and provides advocacy for art crime related matters. Full information on FAR® and how the system of tagging and registering art is available at www.FineArtRegistry.com.
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