Park West Auctioneers, Park West Gallery View appraised value with skepticism Ripoff Southfield Michigan
In June, 1993, I bought an Agamograph entitled "Petit Secret Romance" (#88 of 99) at auction from Park West Gallery in a hotel ballroom in Dallas, Texas for $800.00 (plus $80.00 buyers premium). Prior to bidding on this item, I read the "Gallery Card" attached to it during the pre-auction viewing period, which stated "Appraisal: $4,050.00". Back then I was new to buying art at auction (the internet was a thing of the future), hence I did not have the time to conduct proper research to know if the "Appraisal" represented the true value before bidding that day. Sadly, this is a situation which many auctioneers rely upon to this day to pump up the selling price.
Now with the advent of the internet, within the past couple of months I have seen this same work sell on Ebay for $1,200.00. Either the work has gone down in value from Park West's "appraisal" in 1993, or that appraisal was vastly overstated to promote a higher auction price at that time. I think the latter is the more likely scenario.
In this case, it appears that the appraised value was many times the actual value of the piece. Fortunately, I bought the piece because I like the art, not as an "investment". However, I was induced to bid higher based on that "Appraisal", after all $880.00 is only about 1/5 of the appraised value! My advice to Park West auction buyers - view Park West "Appraised value" with great skepticism.
Michael
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.