Art Auctions

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have any of you ever bought anything from the art auctions on board the ships?

 

Did you have your art work apprasied when you got home?

 

If so, was the home appraisal close to what you paid?

[Druke I]

I've not bought anything at a ship's art auction.

 

To be honest, I have seen little that I would want, but art appreciation is very subjective.

[user8]

I have never purchased anything at the on-board art auctions but my daughter has. I doubt that she had it appraised after getting home but she was none the less very pleased with it.

 

I, on the other hand, have never seen anything I have really wanted. If I were wanting to purchase art, I think I would do it at home rather on a cruise ship.

[RockyBayou]

I attended the Art Auction onboard just to see what it was like and wound up winning a lithograph. They wanted $30 to ship it to me and I was about to turn it down when my husband agreed - he thinks he can sell it on Ebay! LOL!

[Randyk47]

I have to be very careful here as I know some folks buy frequently from the ship art auctions but, quite frankly, for the most part their pieces are marginal, at least for price. Granted, art is in the eye of the beholder and if you see a piece you like and are willing to pay the price and, in this case the shipping, then go for it. It's not that we collect a lot of art but we have some and in a number of cases pieces from the artists they are auctioning. Almost without exception they have charged more for a litho, for instance, than you can buy it at a standard land based seller. I think if you're selective there might be a piece here or there but generally we walk through their exhibit to check what they have on that particular cruise and usually don't go to any auctions. In fact, we've never bought on a ship and now tend to buy from local artists trying to get started. We've gotten some beautiful pieces here in San Antonio from some very promising artists.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have stopped by some of the art auctions - looked over lots of art work, but we have never found anything that we really liked - granted others may have liked the art work, but we were never impressed with anything that we saw.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Now I don't know if this was true....

 

But one time while we were looking at a painting, a man stopped by us and commented that he bought a painting, had it apprasied when he got home and found that it wasn't worth what he had paid for it.

[FoxyTerrier]

I attended the Art Auction onboard just to see what it was like and wound up winning a lithograph. They wanted $30 to ship it to me and I was about to turn it down when my husband agreed - he thinks he can sell it on Ebay! LOL!

 

Just curious are you from Rocky Bayou in Niceville, FL?

[RedmondCruiser]

Ingrid and I love art and have filled many walls over the years. Value wise, the pictures that we bought in the early 90's have faired the best. I doubt that you get a good deal today. We have a Dali that we bought on the Norway in 92 for $750 and now appraises in $5000+ catagory.

 

Park West has it down to a science and they do not leave any money on the table. --- We do have several Tarkay's - mainly because we like his work. The problem was that on a Celebrity ship and on the Amsterdam the Park West people stated that Tarkay was dying and his works would not be around for long. Turns out that this is not true. --- thought of writing Park West or HAL but I don't think that it would do any good.

 

Basically if you like the art and will enjoy it - Buy It - but "buyer be ware"

 

Their framing costs are a good deal - and you can always get a free glass of champagne.

[noblepa]

We went to one on a Carnival cruise. It was also run by Park West. We bought a couple of numbered reproduction Garfield drawings by Jim Davis. We have no illusions that we have purchased great art or even a great investment, but we liked them.

 

There was a woman there who ended up bidding against us for one of the drawings, which annoyed me a little. She was bidding on a couple of small Picasso's and she drove the price of our drawing up. To her it was chump change.

 

As we were checking out after the auction, she was sitting at the next table paying for her purchases. She spent over $15,000. We just chalked it up to the fact that there are a lot of people with a lot more money than we have.

 

The next evening, at the midnight buffet, we were seated at a table next to hers, purely by coincidence. We couldn't help overhearing her conversation. It turns out that she was travelling solo. Her husband had run away with his secretary. This woman, however, still had hubby's AmEx card, and she was making the most of it. The cruise, the artwork, who knows what else...

 

Its too bad that things like that happen to people, but we got a good laugh out of it, in spite or ourselves.

 

Paul Noble

[Bookish Angel]

I have never seen any piece of art at a shipboard auction that I would buy; much of what is displayed falls into the "collectables" category for me. I have also seen "art" that appears to have been painted on improperly stretched canvas.

 

I have also noticed that the auction staff know precious little about provenance, documentation of authenticity and Art History in general.

 

I spend my money in port on good quality indigenous art from reputable galleries or artists' cooperatives.

[RuthC]

I've never seen anything that I would care to buy, but even if I did I wouldn't buy it on principle.

I refuse to purchase the same art that takes up the seats in a lovely lounge, and makes an obstacle course out of getting from the elevator down the starboard side. If HAL wants to have this artwork for sale there should be a dedicated area that does not otherwise interfere with the passengers.

[Grumpy1]

We purchased one numbered seriograph onboard at the opening bid. I knew it wasn't a great price, but it wasn't a bad price and that piece was not showing up in a quick web search. We liked it, we bought it. I've since found it on the web for about $100 less, but then I have to deduct all of that champagne from the onboard cost:rolleyes: so it wasn't too bad after all... I doubt that there are very many bargains to be found onboard, but if you can get a piece you like at the opening bid price, you won't get taken too badly.

[RockyBayou]

Just curious are you from Rocky Bayou in Niceville, FL?

 

Yes, how did you know? (I was formerly known as BlueWaterBay :0))

[Joanandjoe]

But it's not us. Art auctions take up valuable space, and generally don't offer good value. We've attended a few because the champagne is good and it's fun to watch the bidding. The only time we actually bought something was on a November, 2003 cruise on the Celebrity Horizon. In effect, Park West was having a pre-inventory sale: the minimum prices were only $25 or $30, instead of $50 or $60. We bought two pieces for about $30 each--roughly their Ebay value--and were "given" an extra. Framing cost more than the lithos!

 

Park West is not in business to lose money. Be careful!

 

Our funniest Park West experience was on the Wind Surf in 11/04. By the end of the auction, almost nothing had been sold (none to us), and only six couples were left in the room. The auctioneer decided to give away five pieces of "art" by raffle. We were the real winners, since our ticket was the only one not chosen. The "winners" each had to pay $30 or $35 for shipping of their "free" art. We, on the other hand, got off scott free, and probably will never do business with Park West again--who needs it? We won by losing, but it was still annoying to have five "winners" out of six (with us the only non-"winner"). LOL.

[LolaWiz]

We bought a great painting this past O cruise and it was not pricy or anything. I bought it because it was painted by a local St Maarten artist of a scene on st maarten.

Everytime i look at it, i remember the cruise :)

also, we enjoyed all the champagne ;)

[FoxyTerrier]

Yes, how did you know? (I was formerly known as BlueWaterBay :0))

 

My parent's house is on the number one green and my dad's been a member of the club since it was built. Former club prez and all that.....

 

Small world....

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have noticed that on some HAL cruises you don't get that free glass of champagne on the first day unless you are registered.

 

While on a couple of other cruises, so few people were attending the art auctions that they kept advertising free champagne every time they had an auction to lure people in.

[MikeT718]

Last spring on the Zaandam we bought 2 items one was a Yosemity Sam cell and one was a sports litho for DS..We bought them because we liked them..We might have over paid but that did not matter as we liked both items..

A couple years ago DW and myself were at one of their auctions on land I bid on and won a Litho of the 1955 World Champ Dogers that was framed..I had seen the same litho unframed for $150.00 and I got it for $150.00 framed..I found out that the frame was not cheap to get it framed like it was would have cost me over $200.00..So if I over paid on the ship I made up for it on land earlier!!!! :)

[kakalina]

I also enjoy the free champagne. The only "work of art" I ever got from a Park West auction was given to me as a birthday gift. My table mate and I were browsing the art when I saw a Picot of the Carribean and enthused over the painting as I really liked it. Sherri, my tablemate said nothing and then presented me with it several days later on my birthday. I was amazed at her random act of kindness and treasure it more than any other gift I've received.

Otherwise DH and I listen and woner how the auctioneer learned to tell such lies. I mean, Park West finds the artist, Park West buys the artist, Park West determines the worth of each piece, Park West tells you their worth and sells them at the price they themselves set. Do you see anything wrong with this picture?:confused:

[Lvteks]

I avoid art auctions, but my DH and DD got into one with Park West on the Volendam and purchased several pieces. Because she had used her internet minutes, DD didn't do her usual on line check. Well, it was a costly mistake!

 

Beware, if there is something you like, spend the time to check it out. E-Bay price was about $15.00-$30.00, so Park West postage and such may be the real price. BTW when I went with DH to complete a $200 + purchase, the flunkie assistant was haughty...probably assumed the attitude to discourage interaction. Something about the upscale attire with bare feet in loafers really set my "fraud" alert on Max. However as I'm sure they expected, I held back from protesting.

 

My advice, buy your own champagne...which I don't drink anyway.....and bring your own crayons.

 

Blessings,

[SarahQ]

I have gone to the Art Auctions held on the past few cruises and found them to be a bit of a mixed bag...

 

I've had one experience with Park West (more than 7 years ago now) and I found that I got a fairly good deal on the art that I purchased; however, the framing costs were easily 4 times as much as what I paid for the art itself (a couple of Fanch Ledan lithos and a Dali woodcut print). Unfortunately, I can't speak for the quality of Park West currently.

 

On my last cruise on the Tahitian Princess, I purchased a Todd White litho which I adore, and was actually a bargain - I purchased it framed and paid about $300US. I've seen the same print online for $1500US (this of course has little bearing for the HAL aficionados out there, as they do not use Park West).

 

My advice to those who are looking to purchase on a cruise is the same as to those purchasing art at a land-based gallery - buy it because you love it, not because you think you're going to make money on it. That said, the Internet is definitely your friend in this case. If you see something you are interested in, ask the auctioneer for the information on the piece and do a quick search to see what it sells for generally - this way, you'll avoid the "rip-off" scenario.

 

Even if you're not looking to buy, going to the auction is always fun and free champagne is never a bad thing! :)

[I Luv Crusin]

There is an interesting thread going on the Carnival Board. Seems that someone purchased an "AS IS" framed piece of art that she had to carry off the ship. She gets it home and receives documentation from PW for another piece of art. She called PW only to find out that the piece was auctioned incorrectly and the 150.00 piece is actually worth 5000.00 and Park West wants it back.:eek:

 

Very interesting reading.

[Copper10-8]

Sorry but the art auctions and the constant promotions for them in the form of fliers are totally worthless to us and thus we have never attended any of them.

[SarahQ]

The thread that I Luv Crusin is referring to can be found here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=298255

 

It is indeed *very* interesting - but I wouldn't be showing up at any auctions hoping Park West will make the same mistake twice ;)