News & Events
Passengers claim gallery short-changed them on ship
DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW | July 28, 2008
By: John Pacenti
Sarasota real estate agent David Bouverat resisted buying art for most of his cruise. But he ventured out after dinner toward the end of his Baltic Sea voyage with a few drinks in him and viewed art for sale by surrealists Joan Miro and Salvador Dali.
He ended up buying two works on a two-week cruise aboard Celebrity Cruise Lines’ Constellation in June 2007. Bouverat said he was told the print and painting he purchased from Park West Gallery were worth about $15,000 apiece. He paid a total of $20,520.
Once on land, he says he learned the Miro print was almost worthless, akin to poster art. The other piece was a painting of a clown playing a guitar by Anatole Krasnyansky. Bouverat said Krasnyansky appears to work exclusively in a stable of artists for Southfield, Mich.-based Park West, which bills itself as “America’s premier art dealer.”
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Robert Burlington, a partner in Coffey Burlington in Miami, is one of three attorneys from his firm representing Park West. He said he had nothing to add to a June 17 dismissal motion.
“The insurmountable obstacle to plaintiff’s case — from which he cannot run — is that Park West delivered exactly what it promised him on exactly the terms agreed,” according to the motion prepared by firm attorney Paul Schwiep. “Nowhere does plaintiff allege that the appraisal Park West provided was wrong or even that the artwork he purchased is worth less than the appraisal provided.”
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John Pacenti can be reached at jpacenti@alm.com or at (305) 347-6638