Monday, August 6, 2007

The Spanish thief.

Many fervent and loyal blog readers will remember the Spanish Princess.
How she had come to sit gloriously on the throne but dramatically fell off it by her own insincere and dishonest doing.
It was the story of her being involved with this photographer and planning to travel together to admit just before taking off that all the time she had been with another guy in spite of having declared she had quit with him.

Yesterday a shocking discovery was made.
For the first time in more than three weeks, through Internet banking, the balance on the personal bank account was checked.
To discover to utter surprise that the bank account was seized by the Dutch judicial authority.
The bank account in limbo.
Impossible to get money out.
Impossible to use the credit card.

The background of this unpleasant and inconvenient situation is that last year a picture made by the Spanish Princess was purchased at the HUP Gallery in Amsterdam.
The gallery representing her work.
However, that gallery failed to finalise the purchase properly and with the Spanish Princess in agreement a letter was send to the HUP Gallery that the purchase was cancelled.
And next the picture was bought directly from the Spanish Princess.
She received the money, 1.800 Euros (2,500 $) and delivered the picture to a photography collection of a University in Holland it was donated to.

However, some months later, and after the Spanish Princess had fallen from her throne, the HUP Gallery contacted the buyer saying they wanted their 1.800 Euros.

First the Spanish Princess herself and next the HUP Gallery were informed that the money was paid.
That the Spanish Princess had received the money directly and that the HUP Gallery had to contact her to get their 50 % share.

The HUP Gallery called the Spanish Princess but she bluntly denied she had ever received any money for the purchase.
Obviously she was lying to avoid having to pay half of the 1.800 Euros to the Gallery.
The HUP Gallery returned and claimed that the money was never paid to the Spanish Princess.
Now the buyer was made by the Spanish Princess into the one lying.
However, there were bank papers clearly showing she was paid and the picture was delivered by herself to the curator of the photo-collection of the University.
The HUP Gallery confronted the Spanish Princess with these facts and this time she admitted she had received money but that it had been for something else.

The HUP Gallery decided they didn’t want to get involved in all this and simply stuck to a kind of agreement signed at the moment of purchase.
While the buyer obviously recommended the HUP Gallery that their money had to be obtained from the Spanish Princess.

Eventually the HUP Gallery involved an usher and without any letters or requests simply seized the bank account of this buyer.

All this will result now in a court case and most likely it cannot be won.
This will mean that the picture of the Spanish Princess has to be paid for a second time and half of that money goes to her.
She will make 1.800 + 900 = 2.700 Euros (3,800 $)

This whole situation exists because the Spanish Princess lies.
Operates as a thief.
She denies she received any money for that picture.
If she would tell the truth and pay the Gallery their 50 %, there would be no problem.

This is a most unfortunate and rather traumatic experience.
Besides the inconvenience as no money can be used from the bank account for some time to come.

Fervent and loyal blog readers are invited to respond and recommend what is the best strategy in this matter.

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To learn more about the HUP Gallery, click on:
http://www.hupgallery.com/








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4 comments:

Fred Wishnie said...

I don't understand? The issue was between the Princess and the gallery, what does that have to do with YOUR bank account??
Fred

Anonymous said...

Exactly, how come a Person can close an account? What does the bank say. Do they want you to pay that amount now?
Andreas and Ute

Anonymous said...

Ahhh...I get the picture.

I believe Michel originally tried to purchase the photo from the Gallery, but there was a problem with paperwork. So he purchased the photo directly from the Princess, then donated it to the University.

A good lawyer needs to be engaged by Michel to help straighten this out. Might be easiest to just pay the Gallery the money, to get his checking account unfrozen, then sue the princess.

Anonymous said...

was an amount of the account frozen to offset the cost of the suit, or was the entire acct frozen? Do you have adequate survival funds with you or available from family? Do you need some money to carry you through this difficult time?

Regards,
Don Howe
Long Island