Just a reminder since the cruise ships will probably be getting back into operation in a few months and these guys are heavily advertising on Facebook, etc. again.. Avoid
Park West Gallery like the plague. They are the people who run those art auctions on cruise ships, so if you've been on one you've encountered them.
It's basically a scam.. their target audience is normal people who have never paid serious money for art before which is easy to find on cruise ships.
They heavily promote their art as 'investments' and will talk about it being a legacy to leave to your heirs, etc. (great for old people with money, which is their bread and butter). The 'Art' they have is mostly open-ended editions that aren't much better than posters you'd find at the mall. They work with living artists who are happy to bulk sign whatever if there's enough money in it. The dead artists they have like Dali are people that had the same mindset back in the day thus they were able to acquire warehouses full of various posters and such that aren't worth as much as you think.
The value part is the biggest scam, everything they sell is "appraised out at big bucks but if you buy today you can save 75%!" .. that ole chestnut, what they don't mention is everything is appraised by a company they also own. Most of the stuff is worth what a signed poster is worth not much more.
It's apparently easy to get suckered into this. My Mother-in-law spent god only knows how much on this, probably 5 figures. A friend of mine's mother did the same thing but luckly after I told him the story she was able to cancel. You read online about some old people throwing their life savings into this garbage.. six figure level.. only for the kids to find out its all worthless after they inherit it.
Anyway if you want to get into art there are ways to do it but don't buy anything on a cruise ship and honestly if you ever want to see any value on it stick to originals and not posters no matter how they gussie them up with fancy names like Giclée, etc.
