05.13.2010

A cruise ship art gallery

Cruise Art Auction Controversy As the editor of CruiseMates I have been advising cruisers to avoid buying art from cruise ship art auctions for several years now. The reason is uncertainly about the real world value of the art currently being sold on ships. In some cases there are even questions of whether or not the artwork being sold is even authentic. In the long run while authenticity does matter, the mere presence of controversy is enough the severely diminish the value of the art.

The current company behind most cruise ship art auctions, Park West Gallery, is about to become embroiled in several class action lawsuits claiming the Michigan art dealer was selling fraudulent works of art. These allegations were first raised by a Phoenix company, Fine Art Registry (FAR), who wrote several articles claiming Park West was actually selling fake Salvador Dali prints. These prints were selling for 10s of thousands of dollars, and in some cases as much as $500,000 in cases where people bought entire collections of supposed Dali works they were told were authentic.

In an attempt to quell the allegations of fraudulent art sales, Park West sued FAR for $46 million in damages for defamation. That case was tried in Michigan federal court and Park West failed to prove their case to the jury. Even worse, Park West was assessed a penalty of $500,000 to be paid to Fine Art Registry for trademark infringement.

Finally deciding they had enough of Park West Gallery, at least one cruise line, Royal Caribbean, has chosen to drop them as the official art gallery for art auctions on their 21 ships. Personally, I have to say I welcome this news with a great deal of relief. Not only was I no longer amused by the circus atmosphere and obvious disingenuous manner in which these art auctions were conducted, I had lost all confidence that the so-called art work cruisers were paying awesomely large amounts of money to acquire actually had any monetary value at all.

The Original Art Auctions

When these jovial affairs started about 15 years ago they seemed like innocent fun. Waiters circled the room with trays full of glasses of free champagne. Most of the artwork on sale was from limited edition print runs that actually have a reasonable aftermarket value solely because they are artist approved, signed and numbered limited editions.

I remember the first time I was with a traveling companion who bought a painting at an auction. She came running up to me trembling, mumbling repeatedly "I bought a painting… I bought a painting."

Obviously, the excitement of the process had gotten the best of her. She wasn't just buying a painting; she was in a high stakes game of lightning-fast negotiations with a room full of strangers. She was bidding with no idea of how high the bids would go and barely enough time to really consider how much she was prepared to spend. In the end she paid about $500 for the print, which came framed, and she was happy with her purchase. It looks good in her home.

But the last time I had a chance to attend a cruise ship art auctions a few years ago and I was astounded by how they had changed. It started with the "auctioneer" (I later found out the people on board most ships are not certified art auctioneers) mumbling the rules, intentionally slurring his words together like a takeoff on the world's fastest talking man.

Every audience member was filling out forms, which I later learned were credit card applications. They were then assigned a paddle with a unique bidding number. The average price of these pieces jumped significantly from selling for $300 to $500 to what I considered to be jaw-dropping figures. The first painting was described as a "very very very very collectable Salvador Dali," with bidding starting at a jaw-dropping $18,000.

What had happened? It appears that Park West Galleries had discovered that there were always cruisers who were more than willing to "invest" extraordinary amounts of money as long as they were assured they were buying quality art. And assured they were, by these uncertified onboard art auctioneers. Even with the continued warnings from people like me, it appears these people were operating under the PT Barnum principle - "there's a sucker born every minute."

As a veteran cruiser and self-proclaimed art critic and investment advisor (I am not professional in either of the latter two fields, but I know a thing or two), I just knew there were very bad things happening here. And now, with this latest jury ruling and the ending of contracts between Royal Caribbean and Park West, I now feel vindicated in the criticism I have given these art auctions all along.

I don't want to see the sales of art leave ships altogether, I just want to see it become ethical, educational and professional. I think we can all agree with that.

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