Chapter Two

We Own a Dali!

My father, Henry Muller, who was involved in many business ventures over the decades, once got involved in the international trade of physical commodities. This was a venture with a partner named Charlie Werb in Toronto. One of the transactions involved a shipload of liquid sugar. The sugar was to be laden in the island of Aruba. To faciliate the transaction, my father flew to Aruba with Charlie to watch the product be loaded on the cargo ship prior to the transfer of funds.

The two of them flew to Aruba, but the transaction ran into difficulties and never took place. As it turns out, while waiting in Oranjestad for the documents, they took a walk on the main thoroughfare where the cruise ships were docked. Next to one of the ships, they happened into a pop-up art gallery with a sign, Park West Gallery and Art Auctions. And as it turns out, my father ended up buying a sculpture by the famed artist Dali. It was a glass sculpture of a melting clock on a hanger. My parents displayed the sculpture hanging from the ceiling in their living room.

When my father passed away in 2017, I began to look after his business affairs, and as such, I was updating his home insurance policy. To that end, I decided to add what is known as scheduled items, which are specific items named on the policy. Again, I went to the same art appraiser, this time to get the Dali sculpture appraised. It was like deja vu all over again. The appraiser explained that Dali’s works are amongst the most copied pieces of any artist’s, and sure enough, what we possessed was a sculpture not by Dali, but a fake.

Please take the time to read the Bloomberg Business article which follows here. It is long but it is fascinating reading. Following the article are some fascinating indictments regarding the manufacturing, distribution, wholesaling and retailing of fake Dali, Chagall, Picasso and Miro prints, as well as indictments regarding several other incidents of sales of fraudulent art. I think they all make for fascinating reading and hope the reader will agree.