Fine Art "investment" mistake

Sailtheworld

Rob_S said:

So, my best guess now is that the artworks he has bought are genuine and exist, but that he's been charged 5x the price for each of them. Also, assuming the company is not fly-by-night (i.e. can be found to make a claim against). Then what are his options?

I have about as much legal experience as I have art experience. Are there any grounds for cancelling some or all of these purchases? Given the disparity between what he has paid, and what the art (in particular, the Dali limited editions) sells for, is this not fraud?

ActionFraud? Set up a website highlighting the scam?

As far as I can tell the director named on Companies House is only involved with companies that are dissolved or ever submitted dormant accounts. My view would be there are no artworks that your father can take physical ownership of and you'll never hear anything else from them again unless they ask for money for delivery expenses.

Inwood House is the registered office of a number of companies (not yours) and I'd eat my hat if you found a gallery there.

That said, Adie Parker, one of the up and coming artists seems to be a real person and artist and mentions in her blog she sells art privately and through the London Art Society. It's all a bit vague and old though.

eskbanker

Rob_S said:

Given the disparity between what he has paid, and what the art (in particular, the Dali limited editions) sells for, is this not fraud?

On the face of it, no - it's charging significantly over the odds, which may be considered morally reprehensible, especially in the context of high-pressure selling, but that in itself isn't illegal (unlike actual fraud).  Pretending to sell artworks when not actually doing so would be fraudulent but that comes back to the burden of proof issue as covered in previous posts.

Willyidol

I doubt very much any print exists,there is no delivery,they only store it for you and for this you will have to pay a monthly fee.A thousand red flags here.These people would take every penny you ever had.They are ruthless imo.

retiringtoosoon

Willyidol said:

I doubt very much any print exists,there is no delivery,they only store it for you and for this you will have to pay a monthly fee.A thousand red flags here.These people would take every penny you ever had.They are ruthless imo.

Thank you for your timely insights 

Criptine

AnotherJoe said:

Rob_S said:

AnotherJoe said:

Is your father also in denial and still thinking he's been astute or does he realise he's been scammed?

Bit of both, to be honest. I dread to think what's next.
Perhaps we need to explore the POA/LPOA (no idea what the difference is) route. Though convincing him to go along with it may be difficult. A serious stubborn streak and extreme lack of judgement is not a good combination.
Also, how would POA prevent him continuing to do this?

Well, he'd have to cooperate in you taking away access to his bank accounts, running them on his behalf ,and the "POA" would enable you to do that. ( And its officially LPA, i was being a  bit casual and forgot the new name)

If he wont cooperate, either you'd have to take a pretty serious legal route, or just let him lose all his money. Which is what he seems to have done now. As a bandaid on the problem, get his phone numbers changed asap.

FWIW i wouldnt bother spending money on the health one, in my experience , no one asks to see it.

Do not dismiss the health and care LPA. It's not usually needed, but in the event it is it's incredibly important. When my mother way dying we had no power to remove her from a truly awful care home for a very long time. The staff were not gentle, and the only thing we could do was visit all day every day and be with her while she cried out in distress. I will never stop thinking about this time and whether there was more I could have done or something I could have done differently. Please don't let that happen to someone you love.