On Video - Park West Auctioneer Misrepresents Dali Prints

We were recently sent the following link to a video of part of a Park West auction on Enchantment of the Seas
(Royal Caribbean) by an attendee who happens to be a Dali collector. This video was shot on July 19 2009.

Park West Dali

Video Length 0:50   |   Click here to watch

Two factors are particularly interesting. The first is that Park West is still trying to sell their Dali prints onboard ships despite the controversy surrounding them and the fact that many of the Dali prints they have sold have been found by experts to bear fake signatures and to be way overpriced.

The second is that the video shows quite clearly that the auctioneer has misrepresented the facts to the buying public. In the video she states quite clearly that Dali spent 14 years carving the woodblocks from which the Divine Comedy prints were made. She says it took Dali 14 years to complete the series of woodcuts, from 1950 all the way through to 1964. This is simply not true.

First of all, Dali did not make the woodcuts. Between 1951 and 1960 Dali created the 101 watercolors to illustrate Dante's Commedia. The woodblocks were not made by Dali but by a team of talented engravers in a project by Joseph Foret. Secondly, to quote Albert Field's The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, "Talented engravers worked from April 1959 to 23 November 1963 to carve the 3500 separate blocks for the 100 prints in the book."

The Park West auctioneer misinformed the public on two counts. She told the public that the woodblocks were completed by Dali when they were not. She told the public that Dali spent 14 years producing the woodblocks.

You may say that these are perfectly acceptable errors, but when the sale of a print valued by Park West at over $13,000 is concerned, these "little slips" amount to lies and misrepresentations.

Watch the video for yourself.

The person who sent us this link is part of an online group of Dali collectors. They can be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollectDali/.

Article by Fine Art Registry®, July 23, 2009   |   Print   |  

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