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Last Updated: 5/21/2009

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Gender: Female
Status: Single
Age: 89
Sign: Capricorn

City: PHOENIX
State: Arizona
Country: US
Signup Date: 4/4/2008

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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 

Nationwide Class Actions Transferred to Washington State

The Honorable Robert S. Lasnik will be the Chief Judge and will preside over at least three of the nationwide class actions lawsuits against the Park West Gallery gang. The remaining three class actions currently pending in Michigan may be moved as well. Time will tell.
You will recall from an earlier Fine Art Registry® article reporting on the unrelenting, arrogant, and clever legal maneuverings of Park West Gallery and its CEO Albert Scaglione that his kingdom of affiliated companies had motioned the United States Judicial Panel on Multi District Litigation for consolidation of all the class action litigation filed against Park West Gallery to a forum more convenient and favored by Park West Gallery - the Eastern District of Michigan. In the past, Park West Gallery attempted through its long time Florida law firm, Coffey Burlington and specifically (Robert Burlington) to move the Washington class action to Florida, where the playing field for victims isn't so level. These plans were also thwarted by Judge Lasnik.
On August 11, 2009, the United States Judicial Panel ruled that the losers, Park West Gallery and its CEO Scaglione, are stuck litigating in the Western District of Washington while other cases pending against the gallery are raging on in Michigan. The Park West ploy to put all their eggs in one basket in Michigan has failed and rightly so.

9:22 PM 
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 

Sued by Fine Art Registry for Defamation, Tortious Interference and Conspiracy with Park West


Fine Art Registry® Press Release

Fine Art Registry®
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact:
David Phillips, Fine Art Registry
206-420-8341
www.fineartregistry.com
dphillips@fineartregistry.com

PARK WEST GALLERY'S SALVADOR DALI EXPERT, BERNARD EWELL, SUED BY FINE ART REGISTRY FOR DEFAMATION, TORTIOUS INTERFERENCE AND CONSPIRACY WITH PARK WEST

(Phoenix, AZ, Farmington Hills, MI — 28 August 2009)   A Third Party Complaint was filed on 26 August 2009 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.

Read the Entire Press Release Here



9:20 PM 
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 

Park West Gallery and its Hired Experts Ewell and Fornés Exposed!

Bullseye! - Hot off the Press!


The horrific (Dantesque) fraud with Dalí

The center sued by the painter's Foundation sells loose prints from The Divine Comedy. A publisher authenticates for the USA a collection which is the subject of legal battles.


Read the Entire Article Here

9:17 PM 
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 

Category: Art and Photography

The center sued by the painter's Foundation sells loose prints from The Divine Comedy. A publisher authenticates for the USA a collection which is the subject of legal battles.

La Razón, Spain

Victor Fernandez - Monday, 24 August 2009

View the English translation below.

Click here to view the PDF
La Razon artical, page 1
La Razon article, page 2

Read The English Version Here
9:16 PM 
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 

NO. 6 AND COUNTING


Complaint, Class Action Lawsuit #6 against Park West Gallery (PDF)
On July 24, 2009, Plaintiff Sean Mullen brought a lawsuit in Michigan Federal Court in what amounts to the sixth nationwide class action lawsuit filed against Park West Gallery PDF and all its various affiliates including, PWG Florida, Fine Art Sales, Vista Fine Art, and Park West at Sea. Rounding out the named Park West Gallery defendants in the Mullen lawsuit is Park West Gallery CEO Albert Scaglione who is alleged by Mullen to be "the prime architect of the fraud and conspiracy." Other named defendants include Royal Caribbean, Holland America, and Carnival Cruise Lines. The Mullen lawsuit is provided here in its entirety.
Sean Mullen resides in Washington, D.C. He purchased artwork from Park West at shipboard auctions on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2003 and a Holland America cruise in 2005. Mullen alleges that "because of the illegal actions of Defendants, the art auctions...were anything but fun, and Plaintiff and the Class...lost millions of dollars as a result of purchasing works of 'art' on the Cruise Lines."
Park West Gallery started its operation on cruise ships over a decade ago and as Sean Mullen alleges "for at least the past ten (10) years and continuing to the present, Park West planned, operated and continues to operate a fraudulent scheme to sell artwork at shipboard auctions on the Cruise Lines, representing at the auctions that the artwork is a 'good investment' and will, immediately upon disembarking, appraise for 'many times' the purchase price."

9:14 PM 
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Monday, July 20, 2009 

Category: News and Politics

Park West at Sea and Celebrity Cruise


 Line Art Auction Fraudulent


Misrepresentation and Deceptive Trade


 Practices



Mr. & Mrs. John Pfingsten



86-year Old Victim of Park West Gallery Art Auction Fraud, Mr. and Mrs. John Pfingsten

(This is another in a series of many case studies of reported fraudulent misrepresentation and deceptive trade practices at art auctions conducted at sea on cruise ships and the subsequent refusal by Park West Gallery to provide customer services support. This one involves an 86-year old passenger on an anniversary cruise on the Celebrity Millennium.)



Passenger / Customer

Mr. & Mrs. John Pfingsten of Tampa, FL.

Cruise line and ship and details of the cruise

Celebrity Millennium, February 2008.

Park West Auctioneer

Natali Kenyon.

What was bought?

Over 30 pieces of artwork in total from Park West, not all on this cruise.
An example of the purchases was a Peter Max print from his Patriotic series, Five Liberties and Flag, appraised internally by Park West for $6,200, sold to John Pfingsten for $3275. According to information provided by a source inside Park West, the cost of this print to Park West was between $380 and $680.

Details of the Purchase

The story is told by the Pfingstens' daughter, Suzanne, who has a power of attorney for her elderly father and who has tried and tried, so far in vain, to help her parents resolve their situation. Following is her general write-up of the case and all relevant documents.

 

To begin, my parents have been on a number of cruises in the past and have ordered and fully paid Park West Gallery over thousands of dollars for a number of art pieces.
My parents' last cruise was in February, 2008 and my father said he does not recall ordering 21 pieces of art. He does recall having a full champagne glass during the auction.
Park West communicated with me that my father is a valued customer. If my father was a valued customer, why have I been fighting for over one year for a resolution to the below matter?
It is hard to believe that after all the money my father has paid Park West Gallery for prior art, they cannot work with my 86 year old father.

5:42 PM 
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Monday, July 20, 2009 

Category: News and Politics

A sequel to the case study on Sandy Jeakins published on the   

Fine Art Advocacy™ website

In February 2009 we published a case study of Sandy Jeakins, a victim of Park West Gallery aboard a Norwegian Cruise Line ship [Park West Gallery and Norwegian Cruise Line art auction fraud - Jeakins Case Study]. In this sequel we are publishing the events that have occurred since that case study was published, as Sandy continued to try to get her situation resolved with Park West Gallery, Norwegian Cruise Lines and her credit card company, Bank of America.


Sandy had purchased two Marcus Glenn prints on a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise and, like many other customers of Park West Gallery, arrived home, researched what she had bought, and found out that she had paid far more for the pieces than they were worth. She tried to cancel the sale almost immediately and this was refused by Park West, even though the order had not even gone through and no merchandize had been shipped.

5:38 PM 
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Monday, July 20, 2009 
Art Investigation Forensics
The following is an introduction to Forensics or Forensic Science. The introduction will be followed by a series of articles focusing on the areas of evidence supporting art authenticity / inauthenticity decisions, their processes, problems, and possible resolutions.

Forensic Science under Attack by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)

by Dr. John Daab CFE, for Fine Art Registry®


Introduction

The Daubert v. Merrel Dow Pharmaceutical ruling regarding Forensics provided us with a glimpse of what the courts will and will not accept in terms of so-called expert opinions regarding evidence. The Killian CBS episode gave us cause to think about what constitutes authentic data or evidence and what factors surround the process of securing such evidence. The conclusion reached by the NAS in February of 2009 is that much is lacking in the way forensic facts are established and much more has to be done to provide any semblance of scientific rigor in the pronouncements of those deemed to be forensic scientists or detectives. A few months later in 2009 two of these "detectives" (they call themselves detectives but are not police detectives) announced the opening of their forensics partnership dedicated to the study of authenticity in arts. One of these detectives talked about using subjective or non-scientific parameters to draw forensic conclusions. This move was exactly what the scientific community was taking issue with and noteworthy in that either the scientific community is not reaching its practitioners, or its practitioners are clueless in terms of what constitutes genuine scientific practice. To understand the present predicament of forensics, let us discuss the nature of forensics, how it is processed, background of the problems, the focus of the NAS complaint, and the steps necessary to bring science into forensic science.



5:37 PM 
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Monday, July 20, 2009 

Category: News and Politics

Setting the Record Straighter

Park West Gallery Director Morris Shapiro deliberately fed false information to the public via The Artist's Magazine. His article was published under threat of legal action by Park West Gallery if F+W, the magazine's publisher, refused. Not only was the reading public misinformed, they were also subjected to false disparagement of the reputations of those who would provide accurate information to the public.

by David Phillips

View Print PDF Version
The November 2008 issue of The Artist's Magazine, an F+W Media publication, included an article entitled Fakes and Forgeries: The Story of a Scam. It was an article written under contract by me on assignment for the magazine. The article reported on the findings of world renowned experts on the subject of Salvador Dalí, and a Chief Inspector of a major German police force's art squad. The article detailed examinations and findings about two Salvador Dali prints from the Biblia Sacra series sold by Park West at Sea for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars aboard cruise ships.
The findings of these experts were that the prints were not what they were represented to be and were not worth a fraction of what was paid for them.
Park West took exception to this article. They had their lawyers write a threatening letter to the CEO of F+W, insisting on a full retraction and implying a threat of legal action if The Artist's Magazine did not retract the statements contained in the article which Park West considered defamatory, false or misleading.

5:33 PM 
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009 

Category: Art and Photography

Reflected Heritage

The Art of Jane Loveall

by Georgianna Lane, for Fine Art Registry®
Jane Loveall, featured artist. Download PDF version

Jane Loveall always wanted to become an artist. Even when told there was no money or career as an artist, she was not deterred, knowing instinctively that what she could communicate through art would mean more than money ever would. From early on, she was fortunate to have the support and encouragement of her family, particularly her grandmother, Phyllis Richardson, who took a strong interest in Jane's work and framed her earliest efforts.
Jane Loveall, Fine Art Registry® featured artist - Biography
The loving legacy of Jane's grandmother continues to be a great influence today - Jane and her husband live in her grandparent's house, just three blocks from where Jane was born. And Jane's studio and gallery, Studio B, are located in a converted apartment behind the house. "The apartment was built in 1943," says Jane, "and the address number was 831B. So, to retain the heritage, I named it Studio B when I converted the apartment to an art studio."

Educating Herself to a Professional Level

"I took my first formal art class in seventh grade and proceeded to take every city-offered art class, summer school art classes and art classes in high school. I then entered college as an art major and graduated with high honors from California State University, Sacramento with a BA degree in Art and a teaching credential in art."
"I sold my first piece in high school, largely because one of my friends wanted to be able to say she bought my first artwork. I started selling my watercolors on a more consistent, professional basis seventeen years ago." Since then, Jane has sold over sixty works.
4:32 PM 
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