Urban Art Association

Clearly they want to sell them, that’s there business and personally I find there is a balance. People always think price high to be happy, but quite often you don’t get the traction. Whereas a lower/more realistic price wets buyers’ appetites. That’s been my experience anyway. Good luck either way

Truth! As mjolnir notes, this is their general pitch and as such it's imperative you recognize their fidelity lies with the auction house, be very careful. Doesn't mean you can't be successful but ensure you place a reserve that you're fully satisfied with as a worse case scenario.

I wrote to an auction house in France.  I am going to Paris over the summer so the plan was to bring some prints by plane and send them to the auction house (French post office, registered) or hand-deliver them even.

The auction house gave me some nice valuation and they can pay to accounts abroad, all is fine but they also wrote this: 
"Be careful, if you bring them directly, you will need an address in France or go through the customs services."

I asked reasons behind it but no reply.  Why on earth do I need a French address? Simple, I travel, I go to Paris with a few prints (below 1000 eur in value ech) and handle them to the auction house, that's it?  Am I missing something here?  I am puzzled...  Am I better sending them from abroad then?

I'm gonna assume you're living out of the UE, which may explain what they posted
Everything sold from a UE country must come from the UE (having an adress) or accounted import duties for (customs). Whatever the value (even less than 1k€ each)

Hope that helps

What would you need, a French postal address ?

A couple of months ago I won some pieces during an action via First Art Auction / Liveauctioneers. The auction house took forever to send the pieces and when they arrived they were all fake and incredibly poorly packaged and damaged . Liveauctioneers asked me to send them proof from valid sources to dispute the item's authenticity. I got all the documentation together and even get in touch with the artists and they all confirmed those items were all fake. I was also informed by other victims of this scam that First Art Auction may be using different names to continuing scamming people via Liveauctioneers and even advice Liveauctioneers about this practice but they still allowed this seller to use their platform. Liveauctioneers is not providing any help, I sent the payment via they platform but they said there's not much they can do to issue a refund. They are a fraudulent business engaging in the sale of counterfeit goods.
Don't fall into the situation I fell into. Don't do business with Liveauctioneers. 

Sorry to hear you haven’t had any luck with the refund, super disappointing.

It’s a tough situation when someone uses real photos and sends fakes, you expect the platform to step in. I got scammed by the same outfit on there and sent some message threatening legal action which maybe helped with the refund. (I used ChatGPT to write them..)

Invaluable, liveauctioneers and the Saleroom are really just aggregators, kind of like what expedia is to airlines, likely their terms and conditions would pass any liability onto the auctioneer. Any claim would therefore need to be made under consumer laws which depend on where you're based, or be made under negligent tort. Neither is straight forward, you would have to demonstrate that their terms and conditions are unfair and breech consumer law in your country (assuming your courts have jurisdiction), or you'd have to demonstrate that they failed in their duty of care (if one is shown to exist) to you as a customer, negligence is another law which can vary considerably between jurisdictions.

Obviously litigation and enforcement of any claim cross border is complex, costly and often not viable. I'm not sure of the sums involved but if it's less than say £10,000 then you'll likely end up throwing good money after bad. A local litigator will be able to assess the merits of your case, advise as to the basis and process for a claim and give a budget, this may be a worthwhile exercise as it won't cost anything and will allow you to make a quantified decision.

The other course is possible criminal liability and recourse from their local consumer body. Based on what I've seen there is a good argument that they're abetting fraud and are either wilfully or negligently allowing counterfeit goods to be sold on their platform, certainly this should be investigated. Furthermore numerous consumers are suffering as a result of their business practises, so investigation by the relevant trading standards is merited and sanctions possible. I would use the threat of the above to try and leverage them into giving you the money back.

If you paid by card you may also wish to contact the issuer and they can commence a charge back to get you a refund.

Hope you get it resolved.

Live auctioneer is just a selling platform. Did you check the rating/reviews of the auction house first?
Was the item described as “After (artist name)?”

I understand that, but I just need some help to directly contact that “auction house”. The only way to get in contact and send payment is via they platform. Liveauctioneers replied saying that the “auction house” stopped replying to them so now they dont have any more options to get in touch with them.

Well, reviews say it all….

You can send them an e-mail direct.  Or use their online contact form.

www.firstartauction.com/?page_id=283

Not sure it will help but here are a couple of emails used by the guy 'running' it as of last year:

First Art Auctions aka LIGHT BLUE GROUP LLC
Murat Yigit - muyigit@gmail.com / serhat.kaan@gmail.com

So can I get some help 

what are the good and what are the bad auction houses 
for selling art on 

im helping a genuine friend sell an original miss van canvas