30 • Cataluña Monday, 24 August 2009 • LA RAZÓN

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.

Victor Fernandez

BARCELONA - On the 4th of August, LA RAZÓN revealed that the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation had sued Juan Javier Bofill and his company, Faber Gotic, for business they carried out in premises dedicated to the surrealist painter in the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona. The Foundation asserted that that center, identified as "DalíSculptor" "violates the intellectual property rights and copyrights." But there are other irregularities.

For weeks this company's shop has been offering a curious product: prints from "The Divine Comedy" by Dante, illustrated by Dalí, for 210 Euro. While it is true that nowhere do they state that they were engraved, nor are they signed or numbered, neither do they make it clear that they form part of a complete work which has been dismantled. Consisting of 100 illustrations, "The Divine Comedy" is considered, along with "The Songs of Maldoror", to be one of Dalí's major milestones as an illustrator. A complete set of "The Divine Comedy" was sold by Christie's of Paris on the 25th of June of this year for the starting price of 4,000 Euro although it had been expected to sell for 6,000 Euro. As such, what is being done in the shop of the Royal Artistic Circle can be assumed to produce an income of 21,000 Euro, not even close to the last recorded sale.

Bofill asserted recently in an interview with the website "Siglo XXI" [21st Century] (http://www.diariosigloxxi.com) that "everything sold here is protected by the appropriate copyright of the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation." This opinion is not shared by Figueres. Sources close to the Foundation confirmed to LA RAZÓN that a work such as "The Divine Comedy" "ought to be presented as a book, and not broken down into parts. We do not like this and are concerned at this lack of respect of the integrity of a work by Dalí. The collector should be aware of this."

A review of the "merchandizing" of the shop run by Bofill and Faber Gotic, can lead one to believe that the Dalí Foundation is working in cooperation with them. Evidence of this are the postcards with works by the painter which bear on the reverse the copyright of Distribucions d'Art Surrealista [Surrealist Art Distributions], a company which is owned today by the Foundation. However, it is not that way and from Figueres it is denied that there is any collaboration with Juan Javier Bofill. Where, then, has all this come from? The supplier may be the former owner of Distribucions d'Art Surrealista, Eduard Fornés of Barcelona, publisher in the '80s of these postcards, and likewise of the binder "Els set dies de la creació" and "Petita història de Salvador Dalí" which can also be bought in the Royal Artistic Circle shop. Fornés is also involved in the latest arguments surrounding Dalí's "Divine Comedy."

Letters and certificates

LA RAZÓN has been able to gain access to letters signed by this publisher which certify as authentic editions of Dalí prints which are the protagonists in a noisy controversy in the USA, all related to Park West Gallery, an art gallery accused of fraud. Since 2004, Park West Gallery has been selling lithographs, engravings and original works by artists such as Picasso, Chagall, Rembrandt or Dalí at auctions on luxury cruise ships. In the case of Dalí [the Empordàn], the gallery

has relied on works provided by the Albarettos, Italian collectors who have been accused by many of forgery. Park West has dealt until the present with certificates of authenticity from their sole expert, Bernard Ewell, who classifies himself as "the Dalí detective". On his website, Ewell states that he has been invited to work as an expert for the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, a statement which the Figueres Foundation denies.

On the 7th of July 2009, Fornés drew up a three page handwritten letter in Spanish for Park West Gallery, which was immediately translated into English for the use of this gallery. The publisher stated that "the company, Park West...

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asks for an attestation about the documentation and the graphic works of Salvador Dalí which are in their possession." Fornés states that he has seen the documents presented by Park West and signed by collaborators of the Albarettos - Jean Estrade and Marc Ways - referring to the "Divine Comedy" and "Biblia Sacra" series, as well as other works "commissioned of Salvador Dalí by Giuseppe Albaretto." Following this he adds that "I declare that I have maintained a good relationship for years with the Albaretto family who have entrusted me with knowledge of their major collection and their archives, wherein are letters, contracts and other documents which are evidence of the friendship they

maintained with Salvador Dalí." What the letter does not explain is that Dalí severed his relationship with the Albarettos in the late '60s and the painter did not wish to have anything more to do with them. An anecdote serves very well to illustrate this. In 1978 when the painter was nominated as a member of the French Academy, the daughter of the Albarettos tried to visit him in his suite at the Hotel Meurice. But she did not get past the concierge. Dalí complained about them and made them return the flowers which they had sent him.

The publisher concludes his long letter by noting that "it consists of original works signed by the hand of Salvador Dalí." If that attestation is true, there is something strange about the last auction held by the American gallery, back on the high seas. This took place on the 19th of July 2009, twelve days after Fornés's letter. Several of the pieces left to the highest bidder were prints from the "Divine Comedy", bearing the signature of the artist in pencil, which is surprising if one takes into account that Dalí never signed the work. The fact has already been reported by the company's customers. This time, however, now with the certificate of "detective" Ewell and the support of Fornés, each print was starting at $8,000. That figure was greater than Christie's price for a complete set in Paris.