Bad Avenue

A violin dealer entered into an agreement to buy an old master painting from me in a quick sale and never paid me. He has had the painting for four years. It was a family piece.

I've been trying to get it back for over a year. 

Always another story.

I found out it was hanging in a Beverly Hills gallery for sale. 

Never got my permission, no idea if they even had insurance. My lawyer wrote a letter and called the owner, a Paul Sykes, and made arrangements for me to pick it up the day I left for Utah. 

The gallery owner said I could pick it up at ten last Monday morning. I left at five in the morning to make sure I was on time. Six hours out of my way back and forth on an already long drive to Utah.

I got there and the gallery was dark and shuttered. No phone number on the door. No note. Im looked into the dark window.

It was one of those bad Warhol, Peter Max galleries, the kind of awful shiny art that you might find on a cruise ship. Guess he has another place in Florida. Turns out he handed my painting off to another gallery and never told us. I was incredibly pissed.

My lawyer tracked it down and a friend finally picked it up the other day.

I despise people like this. No calls, no respect, no accountability. Hope that I run into the owner one day.