NEED SOME PRAYERS

NEED SOME PRAYERS

Whatever your religious and spiritual beliefs may be, I would really appreciate your saying a prayer for my darling wife Melinda who will be having eye surgery at the University of North Carolina on Monday. Her left eye will hava a cataract removed and receive a new lense. While everyone says this is a relatively routine procedure these days, Melinda faces a special challenge.

She has almost no vision in her right eye, so this operation on her left is the one big chance to see better in the future. She has gone through weeks of concern about the possibility (one in a thousand) of something going wrong and then facing a future of virtual blindness.

Melinda and I have three adopted kids in India and we have visited them a couple of times. All three are Tibetan refugees and one, Wangchuk, is a monk in a Buddhist monestary outside Mysore. Melinda also sponsors four monks at the Drepong Losling Monestary further north. Because of our years long association with the monestaries, we have been assured that prayers are being said in every Tibetan Buddhist monestary in India.

Here in Santa Fe, they are praying at Santo Domingo Pueblo and a Hispanic women's prayer group. So please join in and add your best thoughts and wishes and prayers to the collective energy that will accompany her tomorrow. Many thanks for your blessings. Stay tuned for a report.

SUCH A GUY, THAT ENRIQUE!

SUCH A GUY, THAT ENRIQUE!

Well it took me long enough to find the time here in San Miguel de Alliende, Mexico to post a report of our visit with Enrique and Silvia Zepeda in Mexico City last week end. Vacations like this are not what they used to be. I'm sitting here in my third floor writing studio. I can hear Cuban music from the Jardin (main plaza) because the annual Cuba Fest is on. Melinda is joining friends for lunch but I begged off to work on editing Artful Dodgers and I'm surrounded by a computer and three telephones. What's wrong with this picture?

OK. Enough whining. Rather, I'll think about Mexico City and the marvelous time we had with Enrique and Silvia and their two very bright boys (8 & 11). We spent an awful lot of time in the car (Enrique and Silvia were tireless in dealing with the traffic) but saw a lot of really terrific art as well. Of course we had some memorable meals, saw the sites and thoroughly enjoyed the delightful family. For me personally, however, the time that Enrique and I spent looking at his Dali collection of artworks and books, talking Dali subjects, comparing notes on the various players in the Dali market and sharing as only two total nuts on a subject can, was invaluable. Silvia looked slightly perturbed/bored a couple of times, but we tried not to impose too much on the lovely ladies. Especially as both are so much fun and so interesting themselves. (Silvia is a sparkling doll!)

Enrique really knows a lot about Dali, Mexican art, the art market and a host of other subjects. With a career as a diplomat, a career with the Attorney General's office and a career as a lawyer, he can speak on almost any topic. He is never separated from his iPad (probably even in the shower) and he has the world at his fingertips. This is the type of intellectually stimulating person I most like to be with. This was our third time together and I'm looking forward to more. We've tentatively set our next visit for Santa Fe.

At the Bellas Artes (national gallery of art) and the Museo Dolores Oumeda, Enrique and I had a terrific opportunity to look at art together--especially Diego Rivera--and compare notes. I love doing this with another art expert because I always learn things I didn't know and learn about how much the other person knows. With Enrique, it was especially rewarding. That man knows alot. He also has a very good eye and brings a lot of perspectives (especially historic) to viewing art.

Better still, he fully exemplifies the first part of my motto:

If a person has integrity, nothing else matters

If a person does not have integrity, nothing else matters.

MIA CULPA - AGAIN

MIA CULPA - AGAIN

No sooner had I returned from Mexico City and a splendid visit with Dali collector and scholar Enrique Zepeda, than I received an email from him pointing out that in my last blog posting I had referred to him as "Ernesto Zepeda".

Ernesto Zepeda is an Argentinian painter who lived for years in Santa Fe. I saw him frequently, we talked often and I consider him a fine man. Even so, he is no Enrique Zepeda, who continues to impress me with the breadth of his general knowledge, his insightful awareness of most things Dali and his generous kindness. I'll be posting a blog later today describing the fun and intellectual sharing of our visit, but for now, I want to sincerely apologize for referring to him by other than his correct name--my friend, Enrique Esteban Zepeda Vasquez.

And by the way, if anyone knows how I can insert the accents that a name such as Enrique's should properly have, please send instructions to me at artpro@bernardewell.com. I do not have Enrique's technical prowess. He carries an iPad everywhere and can make it do wonderous things.

HOLA FROM MEXICO !

Hola From Mexico !

Here I again sit in my third floor writing studio working on the rewrite of Artful Dodgers: Fraud and Foolishness in the Art Market. With a terrific torta Cubana and a Cerveza Pacifico close at hand, gentle breezes wafting in from my roof-top terrace and all of San Miguel de Alliende around and below me, I am reminded of the thought that "the best revenge is to live well". So how am I doing?

With the promise of a luxury bus ride to Mexico City on Friday and several days with my friend Ernesto Zepeda, the Dali collector and scholar, the nastiness of Fine Art Registry and those associated with them seem a very long way away. A host of strong and supportive comments have come in from people who really do know the truth, but the settlement agreement in a recent lawsuit precludes me from publishing them. Pity, but it's the cost of deciding that no matter how badly I've been treated, no matter how many lies have been posted about me and no matter how flawed other "Dali experts" may be, I just don't want to spend the next three years of my life in a lawsuit proving myself right. The people who really matter and the people who really do know don't have to have me prove anything to them. I'll concentrate on living well and try to keep the poison extruded by others out of my life.

Oh, by the way...... One comment sent to this blog by someone too chicken to identify themself (although it's obvious who it is) referred to my posting in which I said I had never worked for Park West Gallery and said that I was lying. NO. I have never worked for Park West Gallery. I have only been retained as an independent Dali expert and believe me, that is a whole different role, especially when my reputation is everything and I shall never be influenced by a client to report opinions that I don't fully believe are true. Ever notice how those who don't understand integrity assume that everyone else is cheating?

So, about Artful Dodgers..... The rewrite (always a part of the process) is going well even though at one point I thought I might be in the position of Felix Mendelssohn who said after completing his Italian Symphony, "Of everything I have written down, as much was deleted as was allowed to stand."


Unraveling Dali's Les Caprices de Goya

Recently I received an interesting assignment. Actually, they all are.
Janice Embry Brown, docent extraordinaire at The Salvador Dali Museum, was asked a question about the printing methods used to produce the 80 prints of the Dali suite Les Caprices de Goya. She, always wanting to give the full and correct answers, passed the question on to Professor Elliott King who suggested she ask me since it is an area of my specialization.

Before leaving Santa Fe for San Miguel I did my research, copied entries from the two catalogues of Dali prints and other printed references and added notes from my files (the most extensive in the world) on my personal examination of a suite of the prints.

I found that the catalogues, as usual, were confused. Dali et Les Livres came the closest. My determination was as follows.

Salvador Dali obtained a set of reproductions of the eighty Francisco Goya images from the Musee de Castres--the Goya Museum--about two hundred fifty miles southwest of Paris. Between 1973 and 1977 he created drypoint plates which, when printed over reproductions of the Goyas, produced eighty two-artist prints. These were then hand colored with watercolor applied through stencils at Atelier J. J. Rigal.

The prints exhibit printed facsimile Goya signatures, titles and plate numbers, drypoint signatures of Dali and pencil signatures of Dali. The total edition size is 250 sets.

If you have any further explanation, additional information or new perspectives on this one of innumerable Dali print enigmas, please pass it on to me at artpro@bernardewell.com. I always appreciate such contributions.

Hasta Luego!

ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS

ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS

So, there I was enjoying breakfast with friends in a beautiful courtyard restaurant in San Miguel de Alliende, Mexico, when that frequently asked question again came up. "What's happening with the Dali court cases and those crazies who were attacking you on-line? It seems that lots of people want to know that because for a couple of year there it was such a big topic and recently it's hardly been mentioned. OK, here goes.

THE DALI COURT CASES:

You'll remember that in August, Federal Court Judge Zatkoff dismissed the jury decision against Park West Gallery. That set up the stage for a second trial in Port Huron, Michigan. Park West Gallery would still be the plaintiff and the defendants would still be Fine Art Registry, Theresa Franks and David Phillips, her writer.

In December, Judge Zatkoff denied the FAR motion to overturn his ruling, but did give the defendants the opportunity to appeal his decision to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. They have done so, but it is far from unclear that the court will accept the case. If they do, FAR will file their brief, Park West's attorneys will respond and the Circuit Court will hear verbal arguments before ruling. If they do not accept the case, Judge Zatkoff will order the retrial. Either way, it's going to be some months before there is forward movement.

Will I testify again? I don't know. I would expect that I will, but I currently have no contract with or retainer from either Park West Gallery of their law firm.

Now, about the attempted class action suits that FAR and others make so much noise about. Either they have been dismissed or are in the process of Park West moving for their dismissal. None have been certified to go forward or are even close to certification.

The State Court case filed by Fine Art Registry and others has been stayed pending an appeal by Frank Hunter of a decision to keep him in the case as a FAR witness. This matter also has a long way to go before either dying with a wimper or, less likely it seems, being tried.


THE LYING BASTARDS:

With no discernable purpose other than keeping the pot boiling, the FAR witch keeps throwing fuel onto the fire beneath her caldron of lies, innuendos and insults. She apparently continues to see me as a potent threat or she wouldn't continue her tirades.

How amusing to see that Fine Art Registry posted a photograph of me (taken from this blog) dressed in my costume for the Surreal Parade from The Salvador Dali Museum to the opening of the New Dali Museum. This they point to as evidence that I'm somehow irresponsible and ridiculous. They obviously know nothing of Dalinian culture and didn't even recognize that the action figure in my breast pocket was Sigmund Freud.

The posting refers to me as "...Park West Gallery's lone, self-proclaimed Dali authenticator, Bernie Ewell, an appraiser (so he claims) residing in New Mexico." That's "Thirty-nine year Accredited Senior Appraiser of The American Society of Appraisers" to you, Lady.

Interesting how a slimy comment like "self-proclaimed" is used to question the credibility and reputation recognized in many countries of the world where I am the expert of choice for those who know.

The posting repeats the old lie that I "worked for Park West Gallery for more than a decade (and was paid handsomely)." Not even close. I NEVER worked for Park West. I have always been a totally independent and disinterested third party expert who was called as an EXPERT WITNESS. And the "paid handsomely" part? Nowhere near enough for the grief, reputation assasination and business destruction that I have suffered at the hands of these loonies. Fortunately saying what they say ("impotent and clownish") doesn't make it true.

There have been some wonderful comments sent to this blog expressing outrage at the way Fine Art Registry has targeted me for a Google Bomb. I appreciate the support and faith of those who have sent them, but have decided that to post them would just further push an obviously unbalanced woman closer to the edge.

Unfortunately this crap will continue. They'll keep pouring toxins into the Dali market pond which will spread out to sicken or kill all other organisms. The legitimate players see this and complain about their sick market, but do and say nothing. Sometimes I wonder why I continue to work on their behalf when they are so unwilling to clean their own pond.


POSITIVE, EXCITING MEETINGS:

When Melinda and I were in Dallas/Fort Worth airport on our way to Mexico, who should come along with a huge smile and his dynamite glasses but our friend Elliott King? He pulled up a chair to our table and we had a great catch-up chat. Elliott was on his way to Canada for the reinstallation of "Santiago El Grande" which had thrilled many thousands at his splendid Dali: The Later Years show in Atlanta. He was pleased to hear that while we were in Mexico we would be traveling down to Mexico City to visit our mutual friend Enrique Zepeda. I'll enjoy telling you all about our adventures in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, I'll work on the revision of Artful Dodgers: Fraud and Foolishness in the Art Market and enjoy Central Mexico. Hasta luego!

DALI POPS AND POP DALI

DALI POPS AND POP DALI

Did you see that? A Salvador Dali oil on panel painting has once again set a new record at auction. They almost always do, you know.

In this case, the winner was "Etude pour 'Le Miel est plus doux que le Sang'" which, of course, you'll know is "Study for 'Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood'", a 1926 painting that has been in a private collection. In very Dalinian fashion, it contains several of the visual elements found in the work for which it is a "study", but there is little other direct correlation. The painting, which sold at Christie's, London for an astounding (but not unreasonable) $6,561,070, includes the severed head of Federico Garcia Lorca (Spanish poet and Dali's lover), a putrefied donkey, the apparatus and hand and other recognizable Dali imagery of the era.

This is clearly the best Salvador Dali painting to appear on the international auction scene in some time, but it is far from the top tier of works which, if one became available, could finally blow the top off the Dali market. It's long past time for a work by The Master to break the $20 million mark and not at all impossible for one of the best to go to $50 million or higher.

Remember, you heard it here first. How long will it take? Let the betting pools begin.


Now, in other news........ I fired up my computer to take care of some quick business before leaving for Mexico for a month, and what should Internet Explorer show me than Lady Gaga being carried into the Grammy Awards ceremony in a huge egg! That is soooooo Dalinian. Don't we have videos of Dali and Gala stepping out of better shaped giant eggs on the beach at Port Lligat? Isn't the museum in Figures at the Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali surmounted by giant eggs? On Facebook I said, "There us nothing new on the face of the Earth since Dali."

Enrique Zepeda (that very clever Dali collector and rapidly expanding expert) responded that her name is "LADI GAGA" and he is sure it is an anagram for "Dali". I love it.

I remember when my son Duncan was young and used to watch television. I never did so he would dash in to where I was reading or writing and shout, "Dad, come on. There's and ad on TV that is straight Dali!!!" He was always right. He is very sharp on Dali images and a real joy to take to Spain. Check out the older blogs about those experiences alone in the museums with Duncan.

OK. Off to Mexico. See you from San Miguel de Alliende and I'll tell you about my visit with Enrique in Mexico City. If he doesn't show me a good time, I'll let you know.

MY FRIENDS REN AND ELEANORE

Attending the Grand Opening of the splendid new Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida (story and pics below), I thought frequently of how thrilled A. Reynolds and Eleanore Morse would have been to see the culmination of their half-century efforts to build the world's best Dali collection. Perhaps they were with us. I almost thought at times that I heard Ren's chuckling.

He and I first met in 1987 when he stopped by my Colorado Springs appraisal office to discuss an upcoming prosecution of two Denver brothers whose 43 galleries sold fake Dali prints throughout the southwest. He would testify and I was the prosecution's chief expert witness.

Biographies and obituaries (both in The New York Times) are easily available online. The memories I have of the Morses are both personal and enjoyable.

If he was here today, I believe that Ren would agree that we hit it off immediately--as he told Eleanor when we called her from my office. As he saw it, he and I were both Colorado boys. He had grown up in the state, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Colorado, was a Board member of the Denver Natural History Museum, had published a newspaper column titled Gold Links Tailings about life in the gold mining town of Leadville, and collected and wrote about etchings by George Elbert Burr.

I was the Past-President of the Colorado Open Space Council and the Colorado Nature Conservancy, owned a wildlife preserve on the west side of Pikes Peak, was an expert on etchings and he and I had climbed many of the same mountains. In St. Petersburg he loved the fact that I, like he, wore a bolo tie.

When I visited Ren and Eleanor in 1987, 1993 and 1998 to appraise the museum collection and to lecture, Ren frequently brought me volumes of his journals and read me passages. Eleanor would tell me stories about the acquisition of one work or another. When we went to dinner at their favorite restaurant, we would often be accompanied by curator Joan Kropf who was really good about going through the experience yet again and hearing the same stories yet again.

The first time they took me to their house, in 1987, Ren pointed at a handsome polished ebony sculpture on a stand in the living room. "Bet you don't know what that is," he said. When I identified it as the rowing post from a Venetian gondola he was amazed because he said I was the first person to ever pass his little test.

Sweet Eleanore (with a core of iron) was an accomplished French scholar and translated numerous Dali books, including Robert Descharnes' 1984 monumental Salvador Dali: The Work the Man. When she heard that my wife Melinda and I would be attending the 2004 Dali centennial seminars at the Museum, she invited us to dinner at the Yacht Club and her box at the symphony. She and Melinda had become fond of each other when Melinda assisted me with the 1998 appraisal. Every year I also did appraisals of the artworks that the Morses donated to the Museum.

Eleanor was less passionate that Ren who often burst out with opinions before carefully considering them. When he heard for the first time about the Albaretto Collection in Turin, Italy, he stated that the works must be fakes because he didn't know about them. Later the couple became close to the other collecting couple, Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto, visited their home and exchanged warm letters, which I have read. When I twice visited the Albarettos, we shared stories about our mutual friends from Florida. Unfortunately, Ren's first response has been used by the bad guys in the Dali market to taint the Albaretto reputation. Dali had carefully kept his major collectors from knowing about each other.

As the new museum opens to welcome its annual quarter of a million visitors, I enjoy thinking about what it would mean to my friends Ren and Eleanore. The building is enormous, the collection is magnificently hung and the curatorial staff is far larger and more scholarly that the Morses every knew. Dr. William Jeffett's splendid 2010 book Dali Doubled is a must-have for every Dali fan. Ren, who wrote seven Dali books, would be impressed and proud.