Dali Fakes #2

Where do the Park West Dali Prints Come From?

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In the last article in this series, we covered the fact that two prints sold by Park West, one for around $18,000 and one for over $7,000 were both found by experts to be fakes.

This brings up the question: Where do the Dali prints sold by Park West come from?

The first step in examining this subject is to have a look at what Park West themselves say about the origins of the Dali prints they sell. Each print sold is accompanied by a "Certificate of Authenticity" which describes the origin of the print. These are signed usually by Albert Scaglione, owner of the company, or by Morris Shapiro, gallery director. Many of the prints are also accompanied by an "Appraisal", also signed in-house by one of the above two, usually Albert Scaglione, and also giving a description of the prints or other art work being appraised.

In looking over the documents accompanying the many Dali prints sold by Park West which we have been contacted about, only three sources come up for the Dali prints which they sell (there may of course be other sources, but in the records examined for over 50 individual prints which had been sold, only the following three sources came up):

• The collection of Jean Estrade, Director of the publishing company Les Heures Claires in Paris.
• The collection of Giuseppe Albaretto, patron of the artist and collector of his work.
• The collection of Roberto Mastella, apparently a friend of Giuseppe Albaretto’s and a collector of Salvador Dali works.

All of the Dali prints which we are aware of have come from one of these three collections, according to Park West's own documents.

The wording on these documents is very similar from one to the next. Some of them include a quoted letter from Jean Estrade giving Park West exclusive rights to sell his collection. Others include a purported letter from Salvador Dali saying he signed prints from the Divine Comedy on 24 November 1974 in Paris (more on this later as the letter does not relate to the signature on the print referred to at all). Many of them contain a quote from Bernard Ewell, whom Park West paid substantial sums of money to authenticate the prints they are selling and whom they hold up as the world's leading authority on Salvador Dali, which he certainly is not.

Some of them also state that the works have been authenticated by Mara Albaretto, yet in 1987 Dali had a statement notarized to the effect that he does not consider any of the opinions of the Albarettos with regard to his work or its authenticity of any value whatsoever and never has. One might ask, does being the owner of a collection of an artist's works make you an "expert" on that artist?

As stated, the certificates of authenticity and the appraisals are signed by Albert Scaglione or, in a few cases, by Morris Shapiro, neither one of which is a recognized expert on Salvador Dali, yet their signature is attesting to the authenticity of prints which they sell for as much as $18,000 or more. These documents are very insubstantial and would never be acceptable to a serious art collector, museum, major auction house, etc. as proof of authenticity of the prints. The vested interest is clear.

Let's take a look at just one of these prints and the accompanying certificate of authenticity and documentation used to back it up.

Here is a print that was sold for $6,000 by Park West to passengers on a Carnival Cruise Line ship. It is a print from the Divine Comedy series, Heaven (Paradise) # 15, titled Dante's Ecstasy.

As you can see, this print was not signed "in the block". It has a penciled signature bottom right. On the left it has penciled the letters "g.a.t". The "g.a." stand for Giuseppe Albaretto. The letter "t" is simply the sequential letter of the alphabet.

The accompanying certificate of authenticity is three pages long, signed by Albert Scaglione.

It says, among other things, that the print is hand signed in pencil by the artist, that it is from the collection of Giuseppe Albaretto, friend, patron and business associate of the artist and an owner of Les Heures Claires, the publisher. It attests to the fact that the work was hand signed in pencil by Salvador Dali on November 24, 1974 in Paris and that Dali provided a letter verifying the signing and provenance, with the work, (now on file at Park West Gallery). It quotes the letter in full:

There is nothing that shows in any way that the letter has any reference at all to the print in question. What is also very strange about this is the following statement, on the same certificate of authenticity:

Wait a minute! So that means that there are several examples with an alphabet letter (at least up to "t" which means 20), twenty-five with Arabic numerals and eight with Roman numerals. I am not a mathematician but that means that there are at least 53 examples of each of the series of 100 illustrations, each hand signed by Salvador Dali and presumably, because this is the same letter used to prove that he signed all of them, all signed on the 24th of November 1974 at Les Heures Claires in Paris. That must have been quite a day. The pencil companies of Paris must have made a fortune. That’s 5,300 prints all hand signed by the Master on that one day. Keep in mind, this was ten years after the edition was published.

Or perhaps the letter is a) a genuine Dali letter referring to something completely different and being called into service here by Park West to demonstrate the undisputed authenticity and provenance of each of these prints that Giuseppe Albaretto is supposed to have had in his vast collection, or b) the letter itself is a forgery.

How could anyone suggest that Dr. Giuseppe Albaretto or Park West or some other third party (a broker perhaps) could perpetrate such a heinous crime?

Well, here is something to consider.

Two letters which were provided by Mara Albaretto to the German police to support their claims of authenticity of Salvador Dali prints in their possession which they asserted were hand signed by Salvador Dali, were analyzed by the forensic lab in Stuttgart. The letters, dated on that same, fateful day, 24 November 1974, and each accompanied by a photo which is supposed to be of Dali signing prints with the Albarettos present, read as follows (translated from the French):

First letter on Hotel Meurice letterhead:

The second letter, also on Hotel Meurice stationery, reads exactly the same.

Following is a translation of an excerpt from the findings of the German forensic lab which covers these letters:

Quite clear. The letters presented by the Albarettos to the German police to show the authenticity of Salvador Dali's signature on the prints they were selling were typed on typewriters which did not exist until ten years after the alleged date of the letters. Forged letters.

It would seem that 24 November 1974 was quite a day for forging Salvador Dali letters. Yet this letter which Park West claims to have on file is the only evidence used to authenticate hundreds of Salvador Dali prints which they are selling for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars each. It would certainly be interesting to subject the letter which Park West claims to have on file to the same forensic testing that the Albarettos' letters were given.

However, that is not all the evidence that the signature on the above print, sold by Park West, is a forgery, whether or not the print itself is genuine.

The official catalog of Dali's prints is a book produced over a 40 year period of exhaustive research and documentation, with the help and support of Salvador Dali himself, by Albert Field, called The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, published in 1996 in New York.

In this book, Albert Field goes into great detail about the Divine Comedy prints. He describes the French edition published in a deluxe version by Joseph Foret and in a popular edition by Jean Estrade of Les Heures Claires. All the prints we have seen sold by Park West claim to be from the Jean Estrade, Les Heures Claires edition. According to the Albert Field catalog, "The total number of prints of each image in the French edition is therefore 5346." This means that these prints are relatively common. They can be bought for a few hundred dollars each or in sets.

Field also goes into the subject of signed prints. He mentions the 150 sets which were signed in color pencil, red for Inferno, purple for Purgatory and blue for Paradise. He also has a section entitled "Unacceptable prints." In this section he states:

A quick look at the print above shows that this is precisely in that category. It has no signature within the print and it is signed in black pencil. A forgery.

Here is an example of a print (right) signed "in the block" or within the print itself. This one has no pencil signature. The print itself may or may not be genuine, but since there are well over 5,000 of each in existence their value is low and they are hardly worth forging.

This one was also sold by Park West, for $1644. It's not worth anything like that amount.

The hand signed prints which are stated to come from the Albaretto collection are highly suspect, as you can see from the above.

The Biblia Sacra prints from the Roberto Mastella collection are also tied in quite closely with the Albarettos. Here is the story as told by Park West in their literature:

Reads like a fairy tale. And since it comes from the Albaretto family who, according to the German police evidence are quite prone to forging Salvador Dali letters and signatures, the likelihood of these being genuine Dali signatures is at best very questionable.

Albert Field in his catalog states in the section on the Biblia Sacra, "The books and prints are not signed." He makes no mention of signed Biblia Sacra prints.

There is a highly misleading statement made by Park West in their literature about the Biblia Sacra prints:

One wonders then why prints which were apparently signed by Dali in 1976 - 1978 and were obviously known about by Albert Field were not included in the catalog.

A Story from 1999

There is another fascinating side to the story of Park West, the Albarettos and their agent in the USA, self-styled "Baron" Philippe du Noyer of New York.

Apparently in 1999, Albert Field and the Salvador Dali Archives were contacted by Bill Smith of Park West Gallery. They were asked to authenticate 1,600 Salvador Dali "hand-signed" lithographs belonging to the Albaretto family of Turin, Italy. Bill Smith told the Dali Archives that Baron Philippe du Noyer would be handling the details and making the arrangements. They would be paid "handsomely". They were also told that Bernard Ewell, a fine art appraiser who claims to be a Dali expert, would also be examining the works. They were offered $19,000 to examine the works and sign an affidavit attesting to their authenticity.

This Baron Philippe du Noyer met with a member of the Dali Archives at his home at 220 Madison Avenue in New York and informed him that Albert Scaglione, owner of Park West Gallery, was used to getting his way, and if he didn't..."bang, bang, right between the eyes..." (and used his hand as a gun, placing it between his eyes as he said it). However, that was earlier.

Albert Field agreed to examine the works but did not accept the offer before the examination. There were already, at that time, serious doubts about the Albarettos' collection of Dali works in many quarters.

Mr. Du Noyer contacted the Archives and made arrangements for the visit, while Park West provided the Archives with documents, mainly from the Albaretto family.

Albert Field and Frank Hunter from the Dali Archives and a third person, a Dali dealer, went to examine the prints in a well-known art warehouse in Manhattan where they were met by Philippe du Noyer, an assistant, Bill Smith and another representative of Park West. They were escorted to a large room filled with many wooden cases, perhaps a total of twenty-five, each measuring approximately 30" wide by 30" deep by 36" high, each containing probably many hundreds of prints. This was many more than the 1,600 mentioned previously. According to a letter dated October 25, 2001 from Albert Scaglione to Albert Field, these prints had been acquired from Mara Albaretto by Park West.

Philippe du Noyer explained that Bernard Ewell had already examined the prints and found them to be authentic and that he had "signed off" on them. Albert Field did not consider Bernard Ewell to be an expert at all, merely someone who availed himself of the information in his (Field's) catalog.

The prints all appeared fresh and new (this was 1999, well after Dali's death in 1989). This was surprising as the Dali Archives personnel were told that each one was hand signed by Dali himself, yet Dali had been dead for 11 years and hadn't been signing anything with a firm hand after 1980-82. This meant that the prints would have to be over 20 years old yet they seemed and smelled fresh and new.

Each print had a plate mark around it. They had been told they were lithographs. Lithographs do not have a plate mark - etchings and engravings do. These were not etchings or engravings.

Albert Field and the Dali Archives team left the warehouse, informing the waiting du Noyer and Smith that they would get back to them and declining their offer to take them to lunch. The Dali Archives team agreed that these prints were highly suspect in many ways. The prints did not seem to be of Dali's works, they had a bogus plate mark and there were at least ten times as many there as they had been asked to authenticate. The signatures all appeared to be identical in their placement on the sheet and in their size and manner of execution.

The next day Bill Smith told Albert Field that if he did not authenticate the works "his career would be finished."

Some time passed. Bill Smith and du Noyer phoned many times asking when they were going to sign. When they were told that the Archives were unhappy with the bogus plate marks they became upset. They offered more money - an additional $10,000. Philippe du Noyer said that Mara Albaretto had had a heart attack on hearing that Albert Field was refusing to authenticate these prints. This turned out to be a lie. Mara called Albert Field directly and asked him why he wouldn't authenticate these prints. The false plate marks came up again. The Dali Archives team had concluded that these prints were merely photomechanical reproductions of an unknown artist’s original works with forged Dali signatures.

Mara Albaretto offered to fly Albert Field and Frank Hunter to Torino to look at her collection. When they declined, she said she would send her friend and attorney, Jean Jacques Biagini, to New York on a visit. He arrived several days later with a Dali print and sketch as a gift from Mara to Albert. The sketch turned out to be a fake as well.

Finally the Dali Archives wrote to Albert Scaglione refusing to authenticate the prints. Park West responded with a scathing letter threatening to sue them for heavy damages if they ever used their name in a negative way. The letter, signed by Albert Scaglione, full of defamatory and slanderous statements, ends with the following:

One wonders what happened to the prints?

We will go into detail in a separate article about the pieces from which these prints were made, alleged by the Albarettos to be by Salvador Dali, but many of them acknowledged to be fakes by some of the world's leading experts on Dali original works.

I called Philippe du Noyer while writing this article as I wanted to get his comment on the above. He confirmed that he did act as agent for the Albarettos and did sell their work to Park West among many other people. He was familiar with some of my articles on the subject which he described as "a lot of bullshit" but was unwilling to answer any questions or give me any further information or comment or to provide another side of the story. He did tell me that he did not have to answer any of my questions unless I was the FBI. He then corrected that to say that even if I was the FBI I would have to go through Park West as they have all the information. An interesting reaction.

It would seem that much is still unknown about the whole Park West/Albaretto connection and the origin of the floods of prints which Park West is selling for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars each, their authenticity asserted by means of bogus documents, questionable "experts", legal threats and lots of money.

Stay tuned while we follow up some other threads here that are sticking up in the cloak of secrecy and deception. Also look for a video in which real experts talk about fake Dali originals and prints.

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