The Inadequacy of Bernard Ewell's Expertise on Dali Graphics
According to Albert Field

Well over a decade ago, on January 13, 1997, Albert Field wrote a letter to the "Personal Property Journal," a trade publication published by the American Society of Appraisers. Mr. Field was responding in objection to an article written by art appraiser, Bernard Ewell. The letter provided, courtesy of The Salvador Dali Archives in New York, speaks for itself and is published here to establish what little regard Albert Field truly had for Bernard Ewell's expertise (Park West Gallery's lone Dali Authenticator).

Fine Art Registry® has maintained from the beginning that Bernard Ewell is an appraiser by trade and lacks the necessary credentials to qualify him as a world expert in the authentication of Dali graphics and especially those graphics sold by Park West Gallery that are represented to be hand signed by Salvador Dali. While Ewell may be a connoisseur of Dali graphics and perhaps well-suited to appraise graphic works, he is not by any stretch recognized as a "market expert" with respect to the authentication of Dali signatures on graphics, except perhaps in his own mind and in the mind of Park West Gallery. Mr. Ewell would be well served to stick to the business of appraising works of art and leave it at that. Ewell's cookie cutter, template-like, overly-simplistic authentication reports prepared at the behest of Park West Gallery and for others who supplied Park West with its seemingly bottomless pit of inventory of pencil signed Dali graphics are simply not credible and are problematic on so many different levels.

It is now crystal clear that the honorable Albert Field, who knew Dali and who worked with those closest to Dali and in fact spent four decades in study, scholarship and preparation of the publication of "The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali," which Dali personally authorized, had no respect or regard for Mr. Ewell's knowledge concerning Dali graphics. It is evident from the Field letter published here that Mr. Ewell has historically attempted to pirate, hijack, bootleg, and leech off of the scholarly knowledge and accomplished hard work of others, like Albert Field, who pioneered the Dali graphic landscape by daring to take on the colossal and painstaking task of compiling a catalog raisonne that to this day is referred to by many in the Dali market as the definitive "Bible" on Salvador Dali graphics.

Fine Art Registry honors Albert Field's 40-year dedication to the world of Salvador Dali and his graphics by publishing this letter in its entirety. We are grateful to the current Director of The Salvador Dali Archives, Mr. Frank Hunter, for making this important and historical archived record available to Fine Art Registry for online publication all in an effort to raise public awareness concerning Bernard Ewell and his lack of expertise concerning Dali graphics from the one that knew Dali graphics best, Albert Field.

 

Albert Field's article to the Personal Property Journal, 1997

Click here to view the PDF

Article by Fine Art Registry®, August 13, 2009   |   Print   |  

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