Complaint Review: Loren Adams Gallery - Lahaina Hawaii

One would think that if, as the artist claims, that the remainder of their "original" pieces will be selling for $32,500 dollars apiece that the opportunity to buy the one I gave away for $5000 or even the original purchase price of $2500 would be a great opportunity for the artist. Getting a piece he could sell for at least 32K for a few thousand is a 1000% percent profit.

As far as there being little secondary market because no one wants to sell, I find this utterly false. I spent a year looking for a buyer through various art consignment sites on the web, ebay, galleries (including Lahaina galleries that the artist's wife now manages). In a year not a nibble.

Never found any other Loren Adams art on the secondary market either.

One would think my piece at 90% off would have found a buyer.

The piece was done by the artist well over 20 years ago in an addition of about 100-120. The fact that they still have 6 left over is not a testament to the artist's desirability but the sun and sunstroke of Hawaii.

Of all the artists work this appears to be the only multiple multiple X multiple. This seems to indicate that not many people are interested. In all my searching I never found anyone interested.

As I said. You can always buy a glorified poster (at least mine, valueless though it was, was "hand touched" by the artist with the same metallic paint they use on a homeboy's 64 chevy) after doing your research. In these days of a troubled low end art market I find it remarkable that they believe thay can get 32.5 k for one of these cibachrome (a photographic print on cibachrome brand paper).

Do your own due diligence. Search the net, auction houses...and see if you can find a Loren Adams print worth 32.5 k. It is a hype and nothing more. When you enter a gallery in hawaii leave the great vacation at the door and use your head.

This is my side of the story and rebuttal of Floyd's from L.A. 2007 Rip-off report on the Limited Edition print that he purchased from Lahaina Galleries about 25 years ago.

The Limited Edition print was hand embellished, signed & numbered an was in fact a Trading edition meaning that the selling price was increased with each print sold. There is a very small secondary market for my Limited Edition prints because not enough people have wanted to part with theirs.

Appraisals are time consuming and the fee we charged Floyd was our regular fee; the appraisal was replacement cost for insurance purposes.  We never told Floyd that his print was valued at any higher price than the current sales price of the last print in the edition was sold at. There are still 6 prints left in the First Edition and the next one will either sell at the fixed price as it is scheduled on the triage which is set at $32,500.00or I will keep the last six.  We are in fact protecting everyone who bought one of these prints.

There is two other editions of this image that were printed in a smaller size which were originally sold out in Japan in an edition of 250 for $6,000.00 each and the Roman Numeral edition which was published in 1998 in an edition of 350 Signed/Numbered prints which are about 2/3rds sold out as of Jan 2012.  They are an alternative to those who like the image but cannot afford to purchase the first edition at $32,500.00which is my right without needing permission from former clients.

Selling Art as an investment is actually against the law in both California and Hawaii so we specifically did not sell Floyd his Augmented Sea Limited Edition print as an investment and further more there is no State civil codes which hold any Artist responsible for what the art market is doing.  In fact many people's homes are not valued at what they were 25 years ago.

The evidence is that Floyd received a full disclosure document with the written instrument PRIOR to purchase which is also required by law.

Since I am the Artist who is herein offering my testimony that the fact that Floyd from L.A. has taken it upon himself to falsely claim that the Lahaina Galleries sold him an Art
piece that depreciates in value when the fact is we have empirical valid datable evidence that the edition is still valued at the sales price of the last print sold.

Just because anyone can complain that they feel that they paid too much for an official appraisal does not alter the fact that we are within the legal right to charge $175.00 USD for such an appraisal. Any other appraiser would have charged him much more than that because as long as the Artist is living they are required by law to contact the Artist; they charge a percentage of the value they appraise the Art-work for.

The replacement value is what any insurance company would have to pay the Artist to replace the Art-work for the collector in the event that it was lost in a fire or flood or in some cases in the event of theft. 

While we are sorry that Floyd feels that he was "Ripped Off" We did not lie, cheat, or steal anything from Floyd and we did not obfuscate the truth about his Limited Edition print in any way.

Lahaina Galleries is a reputable business that represented my work for over 23 years and we know them to be honest in all their dealings with collectors.

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