Urban Art Association

I will preface this by saying that I've purchased original art pieces from galleries all over the world. Mostly original paintings and sculptures from all over Europe. They've almost all arrived on time and in good condition. England, France, Germany, UAE (Dubai), Spain. I've received a crate from almost every country on earth. I've met so many amazing gallery owners and employees. Never had a real problem with one. Until today. 

It all started when I reached out to Galerie Kronsbein to inquire about an original Kunstrasen canvas. As they are a partner of UAA and advertise at the top of the page, I trusted them. Big mistake.

Red flag #1:

It took a gallery employee over a week to respond. His name is Valeri Lalov and he claims to have a M.A.

He said thank you for the interest and he'd get back to me right away (hilarious lol).

I sent two more follow up emails. No response.

I finally ended up buying the piece for full price even though it was way overpriced. I was sick of dealing with them and just wanted them to ship the piece as soon as possible. I added it to my cart and checked out via their online store and sent immediate payment of over $1000. Another big mistake.

In my experience it takes a professional gallery about 3 days to ship something internationally. Sometimes as many as 5 to 7 days, but in those special cases the galleries always let me know what's going on through constant communication. Emails, phone calls, whatever.  

Again I understand that things happen and shipping to the USA can be difficult. But a small canvas piece like this one should have taken a professional gallery less than 48 hours to crate and ship. Very basic stuff.

Red flag #2:

Over a week later Valeri finally emails me back. He calls me Dan (my name is Dave) and proceeds to mention an additional shipping cost on top of what I already paid. Again, I understand additional shipping costs but those things need to be communicated in a better way. And done within a reasonable amount of time. 

I told him to either ship me the piece for what I paid or send me a full refund. No response for 8 days.

Red Flag #3:

14 DAYS after I sent payment and still no tracking number or refund. Or an email to let me know the status of the order. I sent another email to Valeri threatening to report them to PayPal if they don't send me my painting or my money back. I also sent the same email via direct messages to the gallery's instagram page.

I finally got a response from both Valeri and the gallery owner himself Dirk Kronsbein:

Valeri said he was "sorry for the unpleasant experience" but that buying Art from a gallery is "not like buying something from Amazon". Yeah, if somebody took over 14 days to ship an item that was in stock they'd probably be kicked off the marketplace. They'd also have terrible reviews for their awful customer service.

Dirk Kronsbein didn't apologize at all. Just told me to stop threatening his gallery. Worst gallery owner I've ever dealt with. His whole operation is a joke. Extremely rude and unprofessional.

Don't buy anything from Galerie Kronsbein. They are the worst gallery in Europe!

Clearly, the UAA needs to terminate the professional advertising relationship with GK because if the Gallery is allowed to advertise on here it implies, either directly or indirectly, that the UAA supports and has vetted this Gallery. Many potential buyers on here will rely on this “representation” and may suffer damages whether large, small, or otherwise. No bueno.

You can easily find unsatisfied customers for every Gallery, Artist or any Product or Company you can think of, so it’s not something that can be blamed on websites they choose to advertise on. Sorry.