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J. W. Sloane Gallery - Art Thieves?
Have you ever bought one of those Buddah 'paintings'? Did you know that it was probably painted in China for about $10 or less? I think they sell for $800 plus in J.W. Sloane Gallery in Cole Bay. Never mind eh, live and learn and come to terms that a cheap copy made with cheap materials will always be just that, the value plummeted when you bought it and it's never gonna go up, sorry.
But you know,it's one thing making cheap copies of Buddhas and long dead artists and finding suckers to buy them, but it's quite another to take local artists work, most likely from magazine ads, and sending it off to be cheaply copied. And then, when being confronted about it and taken to court, to keep on doing so. It's not just a question of copyright, fraud and theft, it's something more, it's sickening and immoral. As Steven Colbert might say, J.W. Sloane, you're on notice!
The image below is taken from a SouligArt magazine in May 2007, a Lucia Trifan painting.
This next image was seen last week in J. W. Sloan Gallery in Cole Bay.
J.W Sloane has was confronted last year by both Lucia Trifan and by Roland and Laura Richardson, who had also had his work copied. There is an ongoing court case against Sloane by the Richardson's who have refused to settle, expressing that settling would mean no legal punishment and it would not help the SXM artists and artworld. Additionally, these copied images are now in the hands of cheaply paid but skilled copiers and there is good reason to believe they are being sold elsewhere around the world. Who knows how many have been made and to how many rip off "art gallerys' they have been sold to?
Also spotted in J.W. Sloane was this copy of a St. Barths artist, Antoine Heckly and another that looks quite familiar to me but we don't know who by.
The Art World of St. Maarten/St. Martin is in an uproar and outraged, quite rightly so. It is expected that complaints will be made to the prosecutor's office and statements to the local press this coming week on the matter. Unfortunately, this is St. Maarten, and when this was mentioned to a former prosecutor it was suggested to take it to the police. Normally this would result in a raid, where stock and records would be seized and a full investigation into what appears to be an international art fraud racket. The investigation needs to reveal how many artists have had their work copied and how many copies have been made, from this compensation should be awarded to the artists.
But this is St. Maarten, who knows what if anything will happen of if J.W. Sloane will have to pay up. One thing we can be sure of though, their name is mud. Try googling J.W. Sloane in a day or two and see what comes up.
J.W. Sloane, you are on notice. At the very minimum is it expected that 1/ you issue a full page apology in local papers both sides of the island, 2/ you hand over copied artists work to be destroyed, 3/ you come clean about other copies of local artists work you may have sold elsewhere in the world and co-operate to have them recalled and destroyed.
And that would be getting off lightly.
Let's see what happens.....
Flipper.
P.S. On a side note about art, I managed to visit Crand Case Harmony Nights a few times this year, it really is a shame that we can't do something like that in Philipsburg. There was a wide range of unique and fairly good quality art and products available, unlike our pathetic little market we have now all selling the same cheap crap.
Today Editorial - Unwelcome side effect - 12th May 2008
Foriegn artists not welcome in SXM - 12th May 2008
There are two reasons it can't be done, the first is how difficult is it for artists to get legal to have a stand at it, I don't think French side artists and vendors would be permitted, nor would most of the small French side traders.
The second one reason is who the hell wants to go into Philipsburg after dark?
The JW Art Sloan Gallery is a shameful enterprise. EVERYTHING dey sell are chinese bootlegs of originals, made using cheap labor from china, and sold here for up 1000% markup. the Sloan gallery is owned by Jan Marshall, well known con artist on the island ran by his girlfriend some lady named pat and has bad reputations. everytime i ask for him, guess wha? he in miami or china. same guy that has some new cheap chinese trucking company on the island. i bought art there once and the colors start dropping and dripping. they refuse to take it back. Evil people. Now tey trying to rip off our own local people? What can artist do? nothing because politions don't care, and jan knows them. Its costs money to file law suits...our artist barely make enough to live cause of no support from our greedy corrupt government and small market. They make a coupel paintings for a hotel and is a big deal, where dey gone get money to hire legal rep? I hope that our great artist like roland ,max ruby can get artists woes to government attention to shut these bootleg people that just rape our country.
- Ripped off by Jan w sloan.
Greetings All,
Give thanks for the article about the Sloan Gallery and bringing this to light. You truly are a "private eye" Flipper!
The painting on the right, to me, looks like it might be copied from the artist Paul Elliott Thuleau who owns the "Tropismes Gallery" in Grand Case.
I believe all the local artists should go to the Sloan gallery and take pictures of any of their works that might have been copied..... and then also file official complaints.
Maybe if there are a few more artists filing lawsuits local authorities might look in to it?
This is outrageous and should be condemned.
I always thought that that Sloan gallery was weird...... I have heard rumors that it's a "money-laundering" thing... who knows; maybe some "bigger heads" are involved and that's why they are not worried about being taken to court because they are protected by some local POLITRICKTIAN. Or would that be too far-fetched?
Anywayz, local artists; stand up and fight for your rights!
One love always,
Sista.
You are quite right, Sista. As a local artist I find this kind of practice really disgusting. This is really causing a stir among the ArtLovers and other local artists on the island. Who cares if they want to bring in flat or sticky reproductions of Renoir, VanGogh or Klimt done in too resinous low quality paint (I have examined them up close). Some people want to buy that to fill a space on the wall with a bit of color. Great!. And why not, they are very cheap and colorful. As long as they are aware it has no real art market value. A copy is a copy is a copy. It is not an investment and will not increase in value (like original signed artwork), it just ages and loses value overtime. What is bad about what this company is doing is that they have it seems, scanned an image from an advert the artist put in the SouligArt magazine last year, (the artist, Lucia had not prior published this image) and had it copied in China to be returned here and sold in their shop. Beside the fact of being morally scrapping the bottom of the barrel, it illegal. And they know it. The fact that I know they know it is because they are currently in court with Roland Richardson and his wife for doing the same thing to them. Roland s wife told that they had dealt roughly with her. When I asked Lucia how she knew copies of her work was being sold there, she recounted that she had gone there some time ago to check for the Richardsons to see if Roland s work was still being sold. It was not. Instead she found two copies of her own work and became upset and protesting tried to leave the store with the work only to be stopped by staff and thrown out herself instead. I went to the Sloane Gallery very recently and the work is still there on sale. I think all local artists are being advised now to check out this place for unathorised copies of their work. (Those two other works look familliar, they are from St .Barths, one is definatly by the artist Antoine Heckly, its on his website). Artists must work together to stop the stealing of their intellectual property by educating themselves on Dutch and International law (Auteurswet and the Berne Convention). The Art Lovers members are outraged and disgusted and are organizing to make an appropriate response and the SouligArt magazine sharing this sentiment will be covering this in the next issue of the magazine.
The issue of copyright affects all local artists, not just visual but musicians, writers, poets, performance and all creative designers.
Can someone inform us who is behind this J.W. Sloane Gallery? Name and shame is probably quite effective to stop him/her from copying our local art.
Jan Marshall who owned Marshall Motors (sold it completely or partly to the McSood family, the current general manager of Nagico who's son Reza now runs it) is the owner of J.W. Sloane Gallery. From personal experience I can tell you that his wife is extremly rude to customers (she cursed and threatened me)and I had to seek help from of an attorney to finally receive my pre-paid purchase (after 3.5 months of being delayed). Jan Marshall also owns Kama Trucks (Chinese crap vehicles) in Simpson Bay, opposite from Caribbean Cinemas.
By the way: have you noticed the 70% discount ads in the paper recently: looks like a liquidation sale to me. Also the fact that there is a notice in the window of the current location which reads that a Paint Store (American franchise) will be opening there soon, is reason to believe that Jan Marshall is possibly closing down.
Too much court cases to deal with? Who knows but soon nobody can claim a cent from a company that has been (purposely) liquidated in the mean time to avoid having to pay settlements, claims etc.
My advise: never buy ANYTHING from ANY business involving these jokers.
How scummy to copy these artist's paintings. I think the architectural looking one may be from Paul Elliot Thuleau. Also, I think the name of the place is ripped off - W. and J. Sloane was a famous furniture store in NYC.
If it was not for this blog post I would not have noticed the copied art at Sloans. My question is this; is the fake art a direct copy or a botched up look alike? meaning.. Did Lucia create the exact painting like the one that is sold as a fake?
And if it is so, why aren't more artists taking Sloans to court and having their copied art work removed? Where are they having these fakes reproduced?
We thought it might be too, but if you go look at the Antoine Heckly website I put you will see it in the right hand corner. I would strongly suggest any artists on the island to go to Sloane with their camera and check to make sure they haven't been copied too.
Flipper