Dali Fakes #7

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

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.

The letter is published here.

And so, in the May 2009 edition of The Artist's Magazine, there appeared an article written by Morris Shapiro, gallery director of Park West Gallery, entitled "Park West Gallery Sets the Record Straight."

Unfortunately, instead of "setting the record straight", Morris Shapiro in fact provides false and unsubstantiated information to The Artist's Magazine and its readers. It turns out that the article contains lies, twisted data and slanderous statements about eminent and respected individuals in the world of Salvador Dali authentication, far more eminent and respected than Morris Shapiro, Park West Gallery and their expert, Bernard Ewell.

Rather than let these lies and unsubstantiated claims persist, we have decided to document them here with proof of their falsity.

False photo/caption

On the first page of the article there is a photo of Salvador Dali with Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto and their daughter, Christiana. The caption reads, "This photograph from 1974 shows Salvador Dalí signing prints as the Albaretto family looks on."

Here is the photograph with its caption as it appears on the first page of the article.

This photograph was, in fact, taken in 1964 at the Hotel Meurice in Paris. The photographer was Robert Descharnes who was Salvador Dali's photographer, friend and personal secretary for many years. Here is the contact sheet from Robert Descharnes' files, front and back, showing the date (the photo in question has been ringed in red by me to distinguish it):

Here is the reverse side of the contact sheet showing the date, April 1964.

And lest there be any doubt, this is what Salvador Dali really looked like in 1974, as shown in a photo taken in December 1973. See the caption on the back of the photo.

Take a moment to compare Dalí in the December 1973 photo to Dali in the photo which was represented by Park West to have been taken in 1974. Something is wrong with this picture!

Following are notes provided by Mr. Descharnes regarding the photo shoot.

Mr. Robert Descharnes confirms that the photo of Dali with the Albarettos was taken at the Hotel Meurice in Paris in April 1964 by him.

One could perhaps conclude that the representations that this photo was taken in 1974 and that it shows Dalí signing prints as the Albarettos look on is simply a mistake and the date a typo. However, this same photo has been sent out by Park West in its promotional materials and each time it is used it is claimed to be from 1974 and to show Dali signing prints for the Albarettos. Following is part of brochure in which Park West relates the connection between Dalí and the Albarettos. Note the photo and caption.

And the same photo has been sent out by Park West attached to letters allegedly signed by Dali in 1974, the photos being provided as evidence of the signing. For example, these two letters were sent to Cheryl Bowen by Park West as part of a package of documents intended to "prove" the authenticity of and provide provenance for the Dalí prints she had purchased from Park West.

The photo and letters have been sent out in similar packages to other dissatisfied customers demanding provenance.

And here is a letter from Park West's senior auctioneer, Bill Smith, a co-executive with Morris Shapiro at Park West Gallery, in which he includes the same photo and identifies it as follows:

You can guess which photo he is referring to in point No. 2 in his letter. That's right. The same photo from 1964.

And the same photo is on Park West Gallery's brand new website about their Salvador Dalí collection. This screenshot was taken on 26 June 2009.

Here is a close-up in case it is not entirely legible in the screenshot of the page.

So this is no honest mistake - no unintentional slip. It is a knowing, deliberate, premeditated lie.

And this deceit was perpetrated by Morris Shapiro, gallery director of Park West Gallery in his article sent to The Artist's Magazine under legal threat if it was not published, with the stated intention of "setting the record straight" with regard to my earlier article on an investigation into artwork sold by Park West. This is after Mr. Shapiro has gone to great pains to establish his bona fides with the CEO of F+W Media, the publisher of The Artist's Magazine. The following is a quote from Mr. Shapiro's letter to the CEO.

Mr, Shapiro alleges that "The article written by Mr. Phillips is full of false and misleading information." But if such blatantly false information as falsely dating and misrepresenting the content of a photo is part of his "setting the record straight", and is used repeatedly by the gallery which Mr. Shapiro directs to misrepresent provenance, how much credence can one give to any of his claims? (One would presume that a man with such extensive and thorough artistic education and experience would know the difference between Salvador Dali in 1964 and Salvador Dali in 1974.) He clearly has no respect for the truth and he represents an organization that sets out to overtly and publicly misrepresent the facts, as shown above.

One hardly need go further with Morris Shapiro's article. However, there are some other points where the record needs to be set even straighter than Mr. Shapiro managed to do in his legally coerced response in The Artist's Magazine.

German Forensic Laboratory Results

Incidentally, the letters which are attached to the misrepresented photo, happen to be the same ones that were found by the German police lab in Baden-Württemberg to be forged documents. This finding has been reported on in full in a separate article which can be read here: Where do the Park West Gallery Dali Prints Come From?

This article reports on an examination carried out by the Forensic Laboratory of the Baden-Württemberg Criminal Investigation Department (the LKA) regarding these same letters that are accompanied by the falsely dated photo of Salvador Dali with the Albaretto family.

It might be useful to repeat the information here. These now famous photo/letter combinations were attached to the report from the police lab.

And that lab's findings, referring to the above letters, follow:

In his article Mr. Shapiro makes the following assertion:

There are two things wrong with this statement. The first is that that is not what I said in my article. It is deliberately misquoted. I said nothing about contracts. The article talks about letters allegedly written by Salvador Dali used as evidence of authenticity, NOT as Mr. Shapiro states, contracts. What I said is quoted here:

That is exactly what I said. And that is exactly what I said in the article posted earlier on the Fine Art Registry® website.

So the fact that a Mr. Alfredo Ghio may have produced a typewriter on which a contract or contracts between Salvador Dali and the Albarettos were typed does not in any way invalidate my statement. The documents I was referring to are the two letters which are shown above. Letters are not contracts! There was a contract which the same police lab examined, but I did not refer to it in my article.

But there is something else wrong with Mr. Shapiro's statement. If indeed Park West has evidence to support their claims in this matter, why have they not presented it? They have been given numerous opportunities to state their side of the story but their attitude has remained one of staunch refusal to cooperate, respond or provide any answers to any of the material published on the Fine Art Registry website and elsewhere.

Does one accept the official report of a respected German police laboratory, or does one accept the statement by the seller of the art under scrutiny (who has already provided a false date and caption information for a photo) that a Mr. Ghio found a typewriter which matched the font in a contract between Dali and the Albarettos which was not even mentioned in my article? Especially when the same letter is accompanied by a photo represented to have been taken in 1974 which was known to have in fact been taken ten years earlier?

You be the judge.

And if there is evidence that a statement I had made elsewhere was false or had been disproved, why did Mr. Shapiro not simply contact me and indicate the conceived error when he first noted it? I'm not hard to find and if I had made an error in an article I would have corrected it immediately. I have not been contacted at any time by Mr. Shapiro or Park West with any request to correct this or any other statement.

Bernard Ewell - Park West's Dali Expert

Morris Shapiro spends much time in his article attempting to establish Park West's Dali "expert" Bernard Ewell as an eminent international authority on Salvador Dali. He states his qualifications as an appraiser. Well, an appraiser is just that - he appraises things.

While attempting to glorify Bernard Ewell, Morris Shapiro spends equal time attempting to defame and criticize the various experts who found fault with the authenticity and value of Park West's Dali prints: Robert and Nicolas Descharnes, Frank Hunter, Ernst Schöller.

In the art world it is the great auction houses (Sotheby's and Christie's mainly) that tend to set the standards of whose opinion to trust and whose not to. Why? Because they sell expensive art and they could not stay in business if they were selling fakes. So they take pains to ensure that the art they auction has been authenticated by the best experts available.

(Two photos of Bernard Ewell. The first is self-explanatory. The second one shows him with a Salvador Dali dummy, the closest he ever got to meeting the master.)

Following is from an email interchange with a Senior Vice President at Sotheby's the full text of which is on file:

Q. "Can I get a statement from you that you do not use Bernard Ewell as an authenticator for Dali prints?"

A. "Yes"

Morris Shapiro claims that Bernard Ewell three times appraised the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg's collection. Bernard Ewell did do some appraisal for the St. Pete Museum, but note that this is appraisal, not authentication. And the last time he appraised any part of that collection was ten years ago. The St. Petersburg Dali Museum recently had to have the appraisal redone, and it was done by Christie's, not Bernard Ewell.

Then there was a quote on Bernard Ewell's website with an entirely fictitious recommendation which he attributed to Sotheby's Print Department. This was also sent out frequently by Park West with a whole package of information about Bernard Ewell designed to back up their claim that Ewell was the world's leading Salvador Dalí expert (he isn't).

However, the following interchange with a spokesperson at Sotheby's clarifies the matter once and for all.

The response?

But it is not only Sotheby's. There is also Christie's.

Following is a statement issued by Christie's Director, Impressionist and Modern Art, regarding authentication of Dali's works.

Bonham's auction house and many galleries retain Frank Hunter to authenticate Dali prints. Nowhere did we find anyone, except Park West Gallery and the Albarettos, who trusted the authentication of Salvador Dali graphics to Bernard Ewell. And it's not surprising. He's an appraiser!

It would also seem to be a bit of an embarrassment to Park West that their only Dali expert, Bernard Ewell, pronounced one of the prints that Park West had sold, to be a fake! But that was shortly before he started working for them. You can read the full article on this remarkable occurrence here: Park West Gallery and Bernard Ewell Salvador Dali Blue Unicorn Blues

It is hard to see how the following facts can possibly make sense:

1. Park West claims loudly and repeatedly that they have NEVER sold an inauthentic piece of art. Never, never, never. Albert Scaglione swears it on a stack of bibles.
2. Park West gave a print, The Blue Unicorn, to an employee in lieu of payment for services delivered (this could be considered a sale, even if it is barter).
3. Park West claim that Bernard Ewell is the world's greatest authority on Salvador Dali.
4. Bernard Ewell pronounced The Blue Unicorn print which Park West sold to be a well known fake.

Does that make sense to you? Either Park West has sold fake art, or Ewell is not an expert. One or the other, or both.

Graffiti

Now we come to another point entirely, a point that I did not make in my article written for The Artist's Magazine.

Morris Shapiro's article strongly asserts that Park West was seriously maligned in my article about the two Biblia Sacra prints which were weighed in the balance of international Dali expertise and found wanting. But there is another, major point that I didn't make that I should have.

Park West sold one of the two Biblia Sacra prints for $18,000, claiming it was signed by Dali. That is a very, very high price to pay for a print - any print.

But before selling the print, and before selling many other allegedly very valuable prints, Park West knowingly defaces them with what one expert referred to as "graffiti".

What they have done with most of the Biblia Sacra prints they have bought and sold is scribble a completely arbitrary set of letters and numbers on them to identify them as having come from the collection of Giuseppe Albaretto. Here is an example. You can see that someone has written in pencil right in the body of the Salvador Dali print, "g.a. IV/IX". This print was sold by Park West for around $7,000. But it has, as you can see, been defaced.

Here is another one. This one was sold for over $6,000. This one is even worse - it is painted on or written on in ink. Someone at Park West has sat down and painted on an apparently very valuable Salvador Dali print. The artist might write or paint on his own print. The publisher might even do so. But a gallery? They have destroyed the value of the print. The graffiti is right in the main body of the print.

How do we know that it was Park West who added these letters and numbers? Because they admitted to it. Following is an excerpt from an e-mail from Park West's senior auctioneer, Bill Smith, to a customer who was requesting a refund on a Biblia Sacra print he wished he had not bought from Park West.

This means that it was Park West who took Biblia Sacra prints which were allegedly originals and hand-signed by Salvador Dali and which they claimed to be worth anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 or even more and deliberately wrote on them in pencil or, in some cases, in ink or paint. The writing added by Park West Gallery is right on the image, and in many cases it is indelible.

A graphics expert, seeing this, was outraged, claiming that it was unheard of in the field of graphics sales and ruined the value of the prints. It may be customary for artists to sign and number prints and even for publishers to add a series number (but not on the print itself, more likely the margin). But for a gallery or auction house to do so? No!

In his article Mr. Morris Shapiro refers to Chief Inspector Schöller's "ridiculous assertions regarding value" (Mr. Schöller estimated the value of the prints at €50 - 75, for decoration purposes). Yet two Dali experts who later examined the prints pointed out that, due to serious inconsistencies in the provenance and the fact that the prints had been defaced by Park West, the prints were of no value. Their opinion was that they bore fake signatures. These prints were sold for over $6000 for one and over $18,000 for the other.

Summary

There are, in fact, numerous other points in Mr. Morris Shapiro's "Park West Sets the Record Straight" article which are either false or unsubstantiated, but why would one trust anything that comes from the pen of a man and an organization who knowingly provide false information to the public in a serious art magazine?

What can you say about an organization that uses legal threats to coerce a magazine to publish false information, or about a gallery director who knowingly writes such false information for publication?

Article by David Phillips, July 7, 2009   |   Discuss Story on FAR® Forum   |   Print   |  

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