Personal Injury Law

Cruise ship passengers say they were swindled in onboard art auctions

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

Are cruise ship art auctions fair or foul? It's a hot topic these days among cruisers -- and one the Detroit Free-Press today is taking a hard look at in a lengthy front-page story.

The sister paper to USA TODAY profiles a number of cruise ship passengers who have accused Detroit-based Park West -- the biggest player in cruise ship art auctions -- of selling fake, forged and overpriced artwork and using phony appraisals and certificates of authenticity.

Park West operates the art auctions on a number of lines including Norwegian Cruise Line and, until this year, Royal Caribbean.

The Free-Press quotes cruisers such as Marti Szostak, a 60-year-old nurse from Bargersville, Ind., who bought 21 pieces of art for $48,000 from Park West during art auctions on Royal Caribbean cruise ships in 2005 and 2007.

Szostak tells the news outlet she worked three jobs to pay for the art and then decided to sell, only to be told by art dealers that the art was largely worthless. She says experts told her signatures on limited-edition prints by Dalí she had bought at the auctions were forged.

"I was sick, I could hardly breathe," Szostak is quoted as saying.

Szostak is one of a number of Park West customers suing the company. The Free-Press says Park West faces charges of racketeering, fraud and violating consumer protection laws by using phony certificates of authenticity to misrepresent artwork, issuing bogus appraisals that vastly overstate the value of artwork, selling mass-produced photomechanical copies as limited-edition prints and selling fake artwork, including art with forged artist signatures.

Park West founder Albert Scaglione denies the allegations and tells the Free-Press the negative publicity is killing his business.

"These charges are ridiculous," he says. "We have never done anything wrong."

Scaglione tells the Free-Press Park West's annual revenue, at $250 million in 2007, has dropped by $100 million, forcing him to lay off half of his workforce.

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on June 10, 2010 (boomark / email).