Park West Gallery's not-so-flattering Exhibit: Its Growing Lawsuit Collection

The National Law Journal - Law.com

On Thursday, September 3, 2009, Law.com - The National Law Journal published an article about the growing lawsuit collection against Michigan-based Park West Gallery. Read the full story online at Law.com

Park West Gallery's Dancing Bear

The Ever Expanding Park West Gallery Lawsuit Collection

The National Law Journal just published an article written by Tresa Baldas, highlighting the many lawsuits recently filed against Park West Gallery, its CEO Albert Scaglione, and his Empire of companies. It is interesting to note that in the many articles that have exposed Park West Gallery over the last two years or more, we rarely seem to hear from the man himself, Albert Scaglione, except for the comment in the NY Times article which we are sure he would just as soon everyone forget. Like the Wizard of Oz, he hides behind the curtain. Granted, this is a law related article and it only makes sense to quote the attorneys representing the respective parties, but Bob Goldman (an ex-criminal prosecutor) and Park West Gallery's Public Relations spokesman (the Dancing Bear - a front man), is far from being the gallery's "lead" attorney in the case. As far as we can deduce, Goldman was hired solely to tout his "ex-assistant U.S. Attorney status" to give Park West the appearance of having an "important" legal team and to fool the public into believing that Goldman has some sort of "status" with Federal authorities and that somehow his involvement absolves Park West from any appearance of wrong doing, but don't let that fool you for a minute. It's all smoke and mirrors folks. Fine Art Registry® knows the truth.

Make no mistake about it, Bob Goldman is just a regular, run of the mill attorney, trying to make a name for himself in the civil arena. As most lawyers know, it's quite a change to make a jump from a government job (in the criminal arena) and transition to try to scratch out a living and build a book of business in the civil arena. Goldman is working exclusively (he has reported) for Park West Gallery. Perhaps he thought that Fine Art Registry would be an easy win for him - a golden feather in his cap. One has to wonder why he is exclusively working for Park West? We wonder what he does? He certainly doesn't appear in court to argue any motions. He rarely takes any of the depositions in the case, but he is present at them. The whole Park West legal team is great at keeping that fee meter running. When a deposition only requires one lawyer - Park West Gallery brings them all and their private investigator too (who usually appears bored and often falls asleep during the proceeding).

In any event, criminal and civil disciplines are two distinctly different areas of the law which is why Bob Goldman IS NOT the go-to guy when it comes to the litigation in the Park West Gallery cases. In fact, he is nowhere to be found in any of the class action lawsuits that Fine Art Registry is aware of. What is never reported and what Park West and Goldman don't want the public to know is this: the practicing attorneys defending Park West are in reality the firms of Young & Susser in Michigan and Coffey Burlington in Florida - just normal, run of the mill everyday litigators. And it is now revealed by Goldman, for the first time in the National Law Journal article, that Park West Gallery is now relying on their attorneys to "authenticate" its artwork. Isn't this a novel concept? It seems that Park West Gallery is getting a bit desperate if they are now relying on their own attorneys to verify authenticity of the artwork they sell. Desperate indeed! Accordingly, there are a few quotes by Bob Goldman in the National Law Journal article that are telling and should be addressed as they are great big red flags:

Goldman states: "Park West stands behind all of the artwork that it sells, and I'm extremely comfortable in taking the position that Park West has been defamed by anybody who makes a claim that any of the artwork that Park West sells is other than that."

We can only guess at the meaning of Goldman's quote. It doesn't make much sense - read again carefully. The "other than that" part is a bit kooky and has no relation to the rest of the sentence. But we'll try to make some sense of it. We often have to refer to the weasel word dictionary when it comes to Park West. It's interesting that Bob Goldman, (he's really the new kid on the block in this litigation and is lagging behind on the facts), is now stating that he is only "extremely comfortable in taking the position that Park West has been defamed". It appears that Goldman is waning significantly on the confidence he has in his own client and rightly so. The evidence against Park West is mounting on a daily basis as is the list of victims. One only has to go to previous statements that Goldman has made on this subject of confidence in his client to see that he is fudging quite a bit now - really trying to make himself look good rather than focusing on his client. Perhaps, this is part of Goldman's exit strategy with Park West. Forward looking - he's thinking about his future book of business. Also, starkly revealing is Goldman's threat on behalf of Park West, and more than once that "...Park West has been defamed by ANYBODY who makes a claim that ANY of the artwork that Park West sells is other than that." If this isn't a threat against anyone and everyone that dare make a claim against the grand Wizard and his Emerald City, we don't know what is.

Like a broken record Goldman also states generally and half enthusiastically that his client has checked out everything with respect to the authenticity of the work it sells stating in particular that Park West has gone "above and beyond the duty". Really? Tell us about that "above and beyond" part, and we would love to hear about the "duty," because in two and half years of investigation, we haven't seen evidence of any ironclad authenticity or the duty that Park West owes to its customers. In fact, there is much evidence to the contrary (read Setting the Record Straighter). Goldman goes on to state: "Any allegations to the contrary have been defamatory." Goldman starkly reveals his inadequacy when it comes to civil law in this quote. He should brush up a bit. Reporting the truth is not and can never be defamatory.

And finally, Goldman states, and this is really rich, "I've been over to Europe three times investigating the background of the pieces [involved in litigation]." Really? Which pieces? The Dalis? The Rembrandts? The Durers? The Picassos? Which pieces, Goldman? He's been over to Europe all right, living it up, wining and dining and sightseeing (with all the other Park West lawyers and its investigator too) while the collateral damage mounts and victims continue to suffer. This is where we cry foul! The Park West lawyers have no business in verifying anything with respect to authenticity of works of art - unless of course Goldman plans on testifying as a witness in this case. This must be part of the whole "Park West standing behind the artwork it sells" statement. The only investigation Goldman may have done (knowing very little about the art industry himself) is meeting with the persons (obscure dealers) who sold to Park West Gallery its Dali inventory of art work and trying to verify the arcane Park West provenance. Truth be told, nailing down the Park West provenance is like trying to nail Jello to the wall. We've tried. The Dali Park West provenance is specifically designed to confuse and confound. We can only guess that if Goldman had to travel to Europe three times, the Park West darling, Bernard Ewell's so-called "authentication" of the Park West Dali Divine Comedy and Biblia Sacra inventory is in fact seriously flawed and inadequate. Otherwise, there would be no need for Goldman to travel to Europe three times. And what business did Goldman have checking into any authenticity issues as it relates to Dali? Is he a Dali authenticator? Would he know a legitimate Dali signature if one bit in him in the elbow? We don't think so. Also, we wonder if Goldman was in Europe investigating the Rembrandt plates that Park West Gallery owns that it lied to its customers about owning. Maybe Goldman will flesh this out more in future articles.

The gallery's self-proclaimed "most feared prosecutor in the world," Goldman also states that the "public allegations" against his client are "reckless, are baseless and defamatory." Tell this to the hundreds and hundreds of victims left holding artwork represented by Park West to be these grand investment opportunities - artwork that buyers can't sell for ten bucks much less what they paid for the artwork. Perhaps Fine Art Registry will prepare a bulleted list of all the facts that we have gathered that show how Park West has cheated, lied, and defrauded many of its claimed "1.2 million customers". All one has to do is read the Fine Art Registry case studies of victims. And isn't it interesting how Park West has changed this statement of fact over the last two years, claiming first that it had 1.2 million customers and now changing it to "we have served 1.2 million customers." Are we talking about a mailing list here or actual customers? I guess we will never know for sure. With Park West, it is always a moving target.

We look forward to seeing more from the Park West Dancing Bear in the future.

Read the complete article here Customers cry "fake," and art dealer yells "defamation"

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