Spanish Art, Surrealism & Dada, Individual Artists, Art Conservation, Restoration & Museum Studies, Modern Art, White Collar & Nonviolent Crime
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Overview
The Great Dali Art Fraud and Other Deceptions deals with the world of art professionals who reap millions of dollars in illicit profits. It's a mesmerizing tale of corruption and connivance in acts that include forging, counterfeiting, phony valuations and large-scale theft. These highwayman robberies are only possible with the cooperation of the artist. In Salvador Dali, the scam world found someone who clearly looked the other way. High speed presses churn out photo-lithographed prints by the thousands. These are never touched by the hands of the artist. They are sold by galleries and art corporations who pick the pockets of the amateur collector public by selling them as costly signed limited editions "sure to increase in value." Could it be, asks author Lee Catterall, that Salvador Dali, the outlandish Spaniard with the waxed mustache, never made an original print? Never drew onto a printing plate his esoteric assortment of tree-branch crutches, flexible violins, lobster telephones and melting clocks? Could it be that all he ever did was sign a mind-boggling 350,000 sheets of high-quality acid-free paper to be later imprinted with forged work of others? Could it be that Salvador Dali, driven by avarice and the urging of his paramour wife and financial wizard, Gala, was thoroughly seduced by the gold harvested from his art? Or could it be that his charming and volatile managers, Irish Captain J. Peter Moore and the Catalonian ex-photographer Enrique Sabater, were responsible for the frauds - and the horror stories of the swindled buyers? In the Great Dali Art Fraud and Other Deceptions, Lee Catterall offers the facts needed to solve this intriguing mystery. The Great Dali Art Fraud and Other Deceptions will be vital reading to anyone who ever bought a print, lithograph, water color or oil painting from a gallery.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
A reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin penetrates the sleazy netherworld of the art business in this tangled investigative report. In the 1980s, Catterall contends, thousands of art collectors and investors unknowingly bought fake prints purported to be signed originals by Dali, Chagall, Miro and other famous artists. Dali, who died in 1989, is portrayed here as ``the P. T. Barnum of art,'' an avaricious huckster who, aided by his wife, Gala, used pre-signed print papers and dealt with shady publishers to create a $12-million-a-year racket. Efforts to crack down on unscrupulous galleries and boiler-room operations brought together the Federal Trade Commission, state agencies and police departments from New York and Los Angeles. Catterall focuses on a sensational 1989-1990 trial in Honolulu involving prints allegedly made by Dali, Chagall and Hollywood celebrities. A useful appendix lists genuine Dali lithographs. (Nov.)Book Details
Published
August 20, 1993
Publisher
Barricade Books Inc.,U.S.
Pages
417
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780942637632