Although unverified, I'm going out on a limb and saying that Isabella Trimper with Art Services International is not a legitimate art consultant. The biggest giveaway?

She said there is no written proposal or agreement and has never been asked for one even when 'Motherwell was commissioned by her company a $1. M piece for the lobby at the GE HQ in Fairfield CT, there wasn't such formality',

When we are constantly bombarded with suspicious emails from supposed galleries, agents and art fairs, it's easy to forget that financial danger to artists exist in the real world. Bloomberg covers the story of Lawrence Salander's mishandling of his gallery, and his persistence in trying to scam someone...anyone.

Lawrence Salander has just the man to save his bankrupt New York gallery.

Salander asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia Morris in a Feb. 15 motion to authorize his Salander-O'Reilly Galleries LLC to rehire him. He's proposed to help in identifying its 4,000 artworks and eventually in selling pieces whose ownership are not in dispute.

His salary was $50,000 a month running the business, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in November. Salander has asked the judge to determine what pay, if any, he merits.

Last week, I received an email via my sculpture website from a supposed gold dust seller. Click "read more" to see the email. Other samples of copper/gold dust scam emails can be found here. The Export Bureau's report can be found here.

Ian from Coxsoft Art Blog has posted a warning about a new twist on some old scams: a company calling itself PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) is leaving notices in people's mailboxes indicating that they were unable to deliver a package, and askin them to call 0906 6611911...but fails to indicate that it's a premium number.

Full story here:
A Scam For Christmas

The Gallery Owe blog has been updated again with some more news stories, including another from Georgia Straight.

The Gallery Owe blog has recently been updated with some news and links regarding the issues with Sergio Patrich and Gallery O.

I heard from Hans about this issue, and he said that "Many artists had extensive contracts, did extensive research, took him to court and have still not recovered their paintings or received and money."

For an idea of the kind of thing that has been happening, read Frank Zeidler's personal account of his experience with Patrich.

I recently received an email from artist Hans Engel, who had an unfortunate experience with a gallery. Engel's work had been on display at Gallery O in Vancouver, whose director was Sergio Patrich. A sudden closure of the gallery left him with uncollected paintings, and money from sold paintings.

Straight.com covers the story here, and a blog has been setup to track the issue.