Park West Gallery
Reviews and Complaints

Count yourself lucky if you have loophole to not pay cause the art is more than likely not real and not want you expected or want was promised and sold to you.
Funny how they go out of their way to make contact if you owe them a penny yet try and get some satisfaction from them in teh form of a refund and it falls on deaf ears!
I say don't pay and ship back whatever bogus art they sent you.
Then count your blessings that you escaped their clutches.
Google park west rip off, scam, and see all the cases on fine art registry.
Investigate the class action suit filed in regard to their corrupt business practices and selling fraudulent art.
You are lucky!

I actually got a real person on the phone when I called to cancel. The person said I would only get 85% back and I would get 15% in credit to spend at Park West, but after reading how many people have been ripped off, I'm just out $2, 000. I guess that's better than being out of $11, 824.41, but still, NO WAY TO DO BUSINESS! I tried in vain to cancel before we got off the ship, but the hard seller would not take no for an answer. I told the person on the phone this and she had no reply/comment. I will be disputing any and all charges on my Synchrony Park West credit card!

We just returned from a Royal Caribbean cruise and my heart sank after reading we have apparently been ripped off to the tune of $11, 824.41. I feel numb. PRAYING we can get our money back before receiving the two Britto sculptures and one Britto framed artwork. Unbelievable. Park West MUST be stopped. I will be contacting the Federal Trade Commission as well as joining a class action lawsuit. What was supposed to be a happy anniversary escape has now turned into a nightmare. Park West is closed today, but I bet when I call them, they'll tell me I can't cancel for some reason even though it says plainly you have 50 days to cancel the sale, and since we haven't received anything yet, fingers crossed! That money could go a long way on fixing up our home.

Just a quick note to the above...I have bought several hundred thousand dollars worth from Park West...I have been trying to sell many pieces all of which I would only get pennies on the dollar as they are not what Park West said they are...all the Auction houses and appraisal companies I have tried have said they are worthless. Very sad to know that i have been ripped off.

The Federal Trade Commission invites complaints from victims of Park West Gallery and cruise line shipboard art "auctions" at ftc.gov or by calling [protected]. Please file your complaint to join others like myself who have been victimized.

Parkwest Gallery they are big scam artist the top news CNN nightly news doing a big investigation they will be exposed on television top 10 multinational law firms are going after Parkwest beware.

My First and Last Experience with Park West Gallery…

I was on a Princess cruise in February 2014 and had my first and last experience with park west gallery.
I went to all the shows and bid and won a few pieces of art. Alfred Gockel, Itzchak Tarkay. On the 2nd to last day a piece of art came up it was a ship nautical chart with the captain and his staff signatures from Princess Celebrity Silhouette.

The female auctioneer stated that this nautical map was worth several hundred dollars and a great add to anyone collection, being a scuba instructor this would look great in my office the starting bid was $200.00,
I ended up buying this piece of art. It wasn’t until I got home when I had my art apprised the other pieces were fine however the nautical map was not, I was told from the appraiser that this nautical map was worth $ 0.00 it was worthless.

I called park west gallery and got the runaround from the management stating that they were not responsible for the nautical map that the ship was, Calling Princess Cruises informed me that since park west gallery sold it I would have to go to them.

So the end of my story is Be careful on what you bid on and don’t truly believe the auctioneer I was left with a $200.00 piece of paper with signatures that could not be verified

I have for years tell people to avoid cruise line auctions. Being an expert Fine Art Appraiser, I tend to avoid them whenever possible. If you want some information this article is worth the read. http://www.travel-golf.org/t_cruise_art_auctions_scam_fraud.htm alot of your question will be answere3d.

Harshmanda
I make my living buying and selling and deal frequently with auctioneers of all stripes. A few are very honest, a few more are crooks and the vast majority just play the game of saying as little as possible and letting bidders assume what they may. Over the last 25 years I have learned the meaning of "Buyer beware" and also that there are deals to be had when others are timid.

What struck me in my recent experience onboard a NCL cruise was the exaggerated claims of the auctioneer and his apparent ignorance of the normal auction process. He understood the use of the gavel, but used a bidding structure that was overly complex with tiered "bids", some of which he called pre-bids, but which were in fact house reserves. He seemed to be trying to create an auction fever without giving the audience much of a chance to bid... and he sure enjoyed slamming that gavel and saying "SOLD!" regardless of actuality. What was disturbing is not that he was necessarily under any regulation as he could have probably claimed we were in international waters, but that he actually claimed it was a live auction when there were virtually no competitive bidders. More importantly his stated objective appraisals or valuations were far from objective and the authenticity of the limited prints by Picasso, Rembrandt, Dali and other masters really was questionable. As "all deal are final" and some of them were in the $10K to $30K it would seem reasonable to expect some sort of guarantee that what was presented was in fact real. The small print on the proposed contracts I saw did not offer this assurance. This coupled with the class action and private US based law suits should be a firm indicator to all customers that not all that is as presented. Technically because regulating transactions in extraterritorial waters, the Park West Gallery cannot not be said to be doing anything criminally wrong. That they have settled with individuals and found culpable in other cases, would suggest that their integrity and honesty might be considered at the low end of the scale. In my opinion they seek to lead their patrons to false conclusions or assumptions which result in purchases at inflated value. This is not unlike any auction, except that here auctions are just the bait; the follow-up meetings and VIP invitations to identified "marks" are where the real action and pressure techniques are applied.
I bought one piece at auction which was the actual item, not something that was to be framed and delivered when we returned home. I was satisfied with the value or at least can live with the fact that I raised my hand knowing that it was not to wave hello. This put us in the sites of the PW people. When we were subsequently the winners of a house draw (100 participants) for a "free" high quality print, my spidey senses went off, especially since we were VIP seated in front row. Normally when I have time I check out prospective purchases on the www, but of course at sea this can be relatively expensive and being the somewhat cheap SOB I am, I never bought a package. On shore, between responding to emails and sight seeing, I also didn't get any researching done. Left to rely on my gut, there were three basic rules that came in handy:
#1: Why is the seller selling?
#2: Why do I want to buy it (for me this is profit)?
#3: What pressures are behind the opportunity... are they real or created artificially?
Obviously PW is in business to making money. However they claimed that the works they were selling had values (via sales records) of several thousand dollars above what they were asking. If this was true it would be bad business to sell them at less than market value. Their business is based on driving the market upwards, not downwards, so the WHY, was probably because they could get more on board ship than elsewhere. This left me with a reason for buying which would have had to have been that I liked the art more than what else I could do with the $10k (+)... I didn't. Lastly, the pressure thing was continually in the background (TODAY ONLY!) and there was no negotiating a due diligence or performance clause into any contract... the deal had to be done, the paper signed, before port was reached. The only reason for this pressure is to ensure the money is irreversibly in-hand before research or second thought might lead to buyer remorse. Any quality deal is worth negotiating and sleeping on.

Perhaps my distaste for this business was best illustrated when the "free" print Eileen had won and decided to have mounted in a gallery quality mat, glass and frame at a $300 price was delivered. The 30x24" piece came with Plexi glass, damaged matting and a dense plastic frame. I guess the question should have been asked as to which gallery the "gallery quality" was assigned. Obviously it was Park West Gallery's quality, which is in our experience looks good until looked at closely.

The bottom line with Park West Gallery is that they appear to be less interested in what they are selling and more interested in maximizing profit regardless of the impact this may have on the people they target. The cruise lines with which they partner appear complicit in this as they allow them to set up shop prominently and provide access to guest lists and room locations. It would be interesting to know if the cruise lines take as much a share of their profits (40%) as they do of the on-shore vendors and tour providers they work with.

I have attended several are auctions at sea, most conducted by Park West Gallery. In EVERY auction I have attended they have clearly stated at the beginning of every auction several things which include: ALL SALES ARE FINAL, SAY IT WITH ME, ALL SALE ARE? FINAL. ANY QUESTIONS? ALL SALES ARE? FINAL. Also they say (in short) there is a confidential minimum bid, that means until the bidding reaches the minimum bid I cannot sell it. I will tell you when the minimum bid is reached. (and they always have done that).

My, My, Dave Teeman, the Arrogant ### that he IS, has rejoined Park West Gallery. Goes to shows you what desperate people will do for the almighty dollar.

Hi there,

Me and my hubby bought two paintings at the RC cruise with different invoices, one has arrived months ago (invoice no: 32R6-2-7)

Mine is still missing. (32R6-16-7)

Trying to get a reply but no news!

not received any information or when my art will be shipped after 12 weeks since purchased back on 11/27/2022

Glad to hear you were able to get your money back through AMEX.You are fortunate since it takes in most cases greater than 60 days to get the art from them and investigate the validity of what was said and sold to you as fact, often times it is too late for credit card comapnies to do a charge back.
That seems to be part of teh MO of PArk west scam to outwait the time period for refunds ..even of their new policy for 40 days! What a joke!