Hi RK,

That's really awful - no legitimate gallery should act in this way. In terms of action you could go all legal on them but, assuming that your understanding was oral, it will be difficult to prove that you had a right of first refusal on the piece. A more effective strategy might be to contact the artist directly and explain what's happened- few artists I know would be happy with a gallery behaving in this fashion.

Ultimately, perhaps the easiest thing is to not buy anything from them again - you could also post the name of the gallery on the forum to discourage anyone else from purchasing from it.

I hope that helps, sorry that its been such an ordinary start to your Tuesday and here's hoping that it looks up!

I'm hoping to appeal to them in the hopes of actually getting the piece before naming and shaming. I wouldn't have been that surprised if it was a private individual but this is from an established gallery in London. Will keep you all posted. Thanks for the support.

Honestly, you should go in (not call) and talk to the owner or director. Explain that you have emails referencing an agreement and you would like to have them honor their word. It would certainly help if you have bought other works form them, so you could tell them you have been a customer and would like to continue to be one. If you are not getting anywhere at that point you should politely leave (without mentioning litigation) and contact a lawyer. It would likely not go to litigation, but a strongly worded letter from a good attorney should sway the galleries position.

This is a form of gazumping I suppose. Technically, if the gallery has already sold the piece to you then they are holding it on trust and you'd be entitled to ask for an 'account of profits' which would be the difference between the amount at which you bought the piece and the final selling price. I think that actually getting the piece itself (specific performance of the contract) whilst possible is a less likely result of legal action (largely because its since been sold to an innocent third party).

I know its awful but for what it's worth I'd advise against actually launching legal proceedings unless the work concerned is very valuable. What with lawyers, court/ tribunal fees etc it could become very expensive very quickly and even if you 'win' you might end up footing the cost of your part of the proceedings which could easily outweigh any compensation awarded.

Let us know what happens though... and good luck.

TIME TO NAME AND SHAME:

Beautiful Crime
9 Ashness Road
London
SW11 6RY
+44 (0)20 7223 3252

Adam Martin's (am@beautifulcrime.com) actions were egregious and despicable. I still cannot believe a legitimate gallery would act in this manner. Extremely unprofessional and motivated by pure greed!

Thought all of you should know about my horribly shady experience. Will leave it up to you if a business that operates this way deserves your patronage.

This site was mentioned ealier by pure evil.

.... so do we boycott the guy or the site - PE's print is
simply celestial ...

..tricky

..

I wouldn't boycott anything. looks like unfortunately someone was told it was on reserve, so the person who wanted it said they would pay extra on the spot. Art is no different to property, its all sold through agents looking to make a quick commission to whoever has the money at that moment.

If you really want something these days, you gotta buy it there and then. I do feel for you Robert but thats unfortunately the way it is now. Looks like the galleries are gonna be as hated as estate agencies before long.

One would think that a gallery's and personal reputation is more important than making an extra thousand pounds. Of course I'm bitter and biased - but if I was an objective observer I would completely agree these actions were unprofessional.

i'd be pissed off if they told me i couldn't have it after i paid and then sold it to someone else for more. if no money had changed hands and it slipped by i'd be pissed but would understand. these kind of pieces by these artists move so quick galleries have to make quick decisions. sorry you were burned though!

I agree they are unprofessional, just that in the current market this sort of incident is becoming increasingly unavoidable. I'm on your side, if a price is agreed I would expect them to honour it, but I also know that the property market in London is rife with gazumping an agreed price by someone else.

Seems to have reached the world of contemporary art in London as well now. All this christies auctions etc is making this happen, demand is outstripping supply so customer service is going out the window.

Sorry robert, that really changes my opinione completely. Thats WELL OUT OF ORDER

No offense to you rklimek or even to the bc gallery as I do feel for you but unfortunately a lot of person are actually driven by greed in all art areas. It happen more often in the street art scene than the rest seems to be, yet I do beleive strongly that the people reacting as such will do a name for themself over time.
My advise, even if you really love the piece will be to do not give them your money for a start, if you will have a new oportunity, and just live and learn as you could become obsessed by it and probably not worth it due to their dodgy behavior.
Again I do not know anything about the story apart from reading your post but I would turn the page.
A chapter is surely not the end of the book.

Robert,

If it's any consolation (probably not), my understanding is that Beautiful Crime isn't much more than an online gallery. It holds the odd exhibition when it can find the space, but it really just seems to be a one-man-show.

Your predicament is mainly due to the lack of scruples of one individual, with no real established reputation to be concerned about. If your dealings had been with a 'proper' bricks and mortar gallery, the outcome would have been not necessarily a happier one but more likely a happier one.

Thanks in any event for bringing this to everyone's attention. Regrettably, I suspect we will hear more stories of a similar nature in the future.

In my case, I thought I had a done deal with a private seller when we agreed a price for one of his pieces. We shook hands like men. You know, both of us honour-bound. Then he used my offer as a bargaining tool to get an increased offer from another person he had been secretly in discussions with.

Fair enough that the seller wanted to get the best price for his item, but lying and misleading others is shameful. It is particularly difficult for those of us who think that "a promise is a promise" and live our lives accordingly. The slap in the face comes when we discover not everyone plays by those rules.

One of the good things about becoming world-weary and jaded is that, every so often, you can be pleasantly surprised by the words and actions of the 'good ones'. And there are still some of them out there.

Rklimek, what's happened to you is terrible, much like the housing market in the UK gazzumping is unfortunately a common practice in the UK housing market. I really hope it doesn't become common practice in this market.

beautifulcrime.com sound like a bunch of c*cks who I for sure won't be dealing with.