Fine Art Advocacy™
A Fine Art Registry® Website

Dear Friends of Park West Gallery,

We are on a mission to get Park West Gallery on the internet search pages in a way that reflects the community we are.

Please join our campaign, named, the "CLICK IT TODAY" campaign.

From outside the Park West Gallery network, log on to a computer. When you have internet access, CLICK your mouse on the following links.

The first is:
www.artsmart101.com

Just click it, read it perhaps, and go on to our next "CLICK IT TODAY" link,
This next one requires a little more of you. CLICK on:
http://www.merchantcircle.com/search?q=park+west+gallery&qn=Southfield%2C+MI

Once you have arrived at the Merchant's Circle Listing:
1. CLICK on PARK WEST GALLERY
2. CLICK on the 5th star (if that is your rating of Park West Gallery)
3. These next step is optional. It would great if you felt you could leave a comment or kind words about Park West Gallery. Please be sure to use the words Park West Gallery in your comments. Including the words PARK WEST GALLERY in your comments will help search engines find us!

TO COMMENT:
click on the link that says write a review
Enter your information and review

Through teamwork and cooperation, together we will be the voice of Park West Gallery on the World Wide Web.

6/27/08 5:33 AM
Park West Gallery Fights for Victims of Scams
Page 1 of 3
http://www.artsmart101.com/
Art Smart Advisor

Art Smart: Finding Art Dealers You can Trust
NEVER EVER VICTIMS OF A PARK WEST AT SEA
Park West Gallery Home to Artists around the World
Park West Gallery and Cruise Line Auctions Stand Against Scam and Ripoff Artists.
Beyond Money Back: How Park West Gallery Guarantees Against There EVER Being a Victim of a Park West at Sea

With mike in hand, Park West Gallery president Albert Scaglione reminded a large crowd of his cruise auctioneers what many of his veterans already knew. "After a few weeks at sea, you realize it's not all glamour - its real hard work!" He didn't have to remind them that it was of course hard work that helped him go from humble beginnings selling art out of truck in 1969 to helming one of the world's largest and most successful art companies.. "I had a lot of luck," was how the charismatic founder described it. Scaglione's immediate challenge in addressing this semi-annual spring 2008 confab was in fact how to keep the energy high and the charisma glowing among all his hard-working auctioneers and thousand employees. Because when it comes to running successful auctions energy is everything. Whether on cruise ships far at sea or on land at special VIP events energy is the , the sine qua non - what starts the bidding and keeps it heading up Now it was time for Scaglione to reach out to his far flung art evangelists, help them recharge their batteries before returning to duty. As usual, the event took place at Park West Gallery's marbled, 63,000 square foot gallery headquarters in Southfield, Michigan outside Detroit. A fleet of silver buses hired for the occasion idled along its shaded colonnades as photographers clicked off thousands of publicity shots -- auctioneers and artists arm in arm.

Auctioneer Stoney Goldstein is one of Scaglione's rising stars. Originally, a musician, Goldstein made the switch to auctioneering five years ago. His prodigious energy is well tuned and charmingly in synch: a low-key blend of knowledge and a capacity for listening: Slightly built, he has a clear boyish face behind black-framed glasses. This correspondent asked for his take on the large Dali displayed in the gallery. "It's not my take but yours that is important," he replied, as he must have replied an infinite number of times before).True to the Park West Gallery tradition as well as mission, Goldstein wants to help you discover your own personal rhythms for yourself -- however long that takes. Whether it's a Renoir oil, a Dali litho, an Yaacov Agam "Agamogram" or simply a shrink-wrapped Daffy Duck from a bin there's a strictly personal meaning to be arrived at - an 'aha' moment to be teased out. .Goldstein's not going to sell you; you're going to have to sell yourself.

"Now all we need to do is figure out how to clone you," Scaglione told Goldstein at the buffet lunch following his speech. It was clearly invigorating for the auctioneers to reconnect with Scaglione, gallery director Morry Shapiro, and other top managers in this bantering, informal way. The hum of shoptalk melted away months of tension and priority juggling. It was the actual presentations from Park West Gallery's leading artists that most helped restore the auctioneers energy to peek levels. These artists included Peter Max, Anatole Krasnyansky, Scott Jacobs, Peter Nixon, Marko Markovich, Marcus Glenn, Linda LeKinff, Jean-Claude Picot, Alfred Gockel, Scott Willardson and a half dozen equally celebrated others

6/27/08 5:33 AM
Park West Gallery Fights for Victims of Scams
Page 2 of 3
http://www.artsmart101.com/
Gockel, Scott Willardson and a half dozen equally celebrated others offering fifteen miniature, classroom-like talks. During some of these presentations, the artists often conceded (in sometimes broken English) how dramatically their lives had changed after they had met Scaglione and signed a contract. Once on board the good ship Park West Gallery, they often found their energy and passion for painting had increased commensurately –this same energy and passion quite evident to the auctioneers reviewing their latest work hung on wall behind them or on easels. The auctioneers' approval and contagious enthusiasm reached a fevered pitch at the "auctioneers' auction" event in which the Park West Gallery pros bid against each other. The "auctioneers' auction" represented their only opportunity to buy the work they sell - and in many cases personally treasure, as strict company policy prevents them from buying artwork for themselves while on cruise duty. (For the record, Scaglione donates all of these auction proceeds to the Park West Gallery Foundation, which supports girls at risk in the Detroit area.) Flush with the excitement of a winning bid one auctioneer commented: "there are at least a hundred company rules on how auctions have to be conducted... but I tell my clients there's really only One Rule: 'you have to love what you see or don't buy it!" Clearly, the energy so crucial to success had returned in force to this man as well as to others by week's end. Now the auctioneers were ready to return to the Mediterranean, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Caribbean -- wherever the big ships plied the waters. By that measure, the conference was an unquestionable success.

Try Sotheby's by Land, Park West Gallery at Sea

How Long-established Art Dealers like Sotheby's, Christie's and Park West Gallery Cruise Line Auctions Keep You Safe from Scams.. ..Why Be a AVictim?

The world's big three art dealers use layers upon layers of art authentication to protect you -- and them.

By Art Smart

Who would have guessed that in Turin, Italy there's the world's second largest museum of Egyptian art?

I found little time to kill and so found myself standing in the mirrored galleries staring at sphinxes and their kaleidoscopic reflections. The man next to me was clearly as awed as I was. We just had to speak, and to share that timeless moment.

This man turned out to be Bernard Ewell, an art appraiser by trade and one of the world's leading experts on Salvador Dali. Ewell lives in Santa Fe but frequently travels the world, researching sources and collections, testifying at trials, consulting for the FBI and checking out Dali artwork before big auction house like Park West Gallery invests in it. The one thing Ewell doesn't do is trade in art. He insists on staying impartial; that's how he best serves the cause of genuine value in art.

"But I thought appraisers were just appraisers?" I said, naively in front of a granite-skinned goddess with a sexy cat face. Turns out that's not true -- no all appraisers are alike even though the word "appraiser" sound almost as respectable as "banker". In fact, that's as much an illusion as the sphinxes in the black glass. Park West Gallery and Cruise Auctions, Sotheby's, and Christie's all offer top grade art -- Picasso's, Rembrandt's, Dali's and so on -- but these fierce competitors share something else: they only hire top grade appraisal talent like Ewell.

These multi-million dollar firms (Park West has over 1,000 employees) know seek out the best appraisers in the business and steer clear of those appraisers who the equivalent of what one might call a "Sunday painter".

And they're willing to pay high prices for those superior appraisal services to protect their hard-won reputations, as much as their client's pocketbooks. When you're that big, you've got a lot to lose.

Ewell is widely recognized as one of the leaders in the appraisal field. He readily admits his colleagues represent a broad spectrum of the good, bad and ugly.

Anyone with a pulse can call himself an appraiser. The least scrupulous now appraise over the net -- just send in a photo they say. Which is laughable to experts like Ewell: how can you tell an authentic signature from checking an emailed image? As for obtaining classy-looking credentials as an appraiser, almost anyone can become an "Official Member of Such and Such Bogus Appraisal Society" by sending in a few hundred bucks -- little or no experience or education required. Buyers of art from un-established art dealers and under-credentialed appraisal services beware. Stick with tried and true dealers such as Sotheby's and Park West Galleries. And check out the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) for a list of the truly qualified appraisers at Ewell's level: www.isa-appraisers.org/public.html. This precaution is especially important if you plan to insure your art collection or take a write off for an artwork donation: www.irs.ustreas.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-06-96.pdf.

Bernard Ewell and I stepped away from the sphinxes.

Our afternoon of time travel to Ancient Egypt through modern Italy was getting as surreal as the work of his beloved artist and subject of so many of his careful appraisal's -- Salvador Dali.

6/27/08 5:33 AM
Park West Gallery Fights for Victims of Scams
Page 3 of 3
http://www.artsmart101.com/

It began to rain outside but we needed air.

We roamed about and finally ducked into the cobblestoned courtyard of an Italian palace.

Ewell remarked how he could almost hear the click-clacking echoes of mounted horses in that very spot centuries ago. He could easily envision the knights' lady-folk running to the high windows above to see who had returned -- and who had not. It was remarkable how swiftly Ewell's mind quickly his mind absorbed so many details of that place -- grasped its history . No aspect -- no proud column or colonnade's shadow would be overlooked. His curiosity and retention make him the extraordinary appraiser that he is. Clues many of us would miss, he gets.

. .

And that's what makes Ewell's seal of approval so valuable to the Park West Gallery and Cruise Auctions. If you're going to sell Rembrandts and Picassos, you've got to have a master appraiser as well.