I know a woman who is an artist. I think she’s a good artist (not that I’m competent to judge) but she has never been in galleries in the city or anything.
She is also extremely Christian.
At a meeting the other day she announced, almost in tears, that God granted her wish. It seems that this woman claims to open up museums all around the world, and that she was going to open one up in our town - in a new building - just for her work. She has a number of museums, including one also in the Bay Area.
I’m sure you are all smelling a rat now. Space in our town is very expensive, a new building would cost half a million bucks at least - and that is a low estimate. She said the building would open in June, assuming they got the permits. Unlikely. I searched for evidence of a museum like this in the other town - nothing.
She is a fine artist, but she is not going to generate revenue through sales or museum entry fees to pay off a half million dollar building, that’s for sure.
I searched for a scam like this, and found only scams where people wanted to buy a lot of an artists work and sent a bank check for more than the amount and you can take it from there. Nothing like this scam.
What I’m guessing is that there will be endless requests for money to pay for these permits, inspections, attorney fees, consultants, etc. It would be sort of like those Nigerian scams where you can get millions if you just give them $$$ to pay the agent at the bank. But in this case it’s a museum instead of a bank account and building permits instead of account managers.
People who fall for these scams don’t often to listen to logic. I’m not sure if being blunt with her would work. If you say “If they ask you for money, then they’re scamming you”, she will likely not believe you or she’ll think you don’t understand how things work. What you could possibly say is that opening a museum is very expensive and she shouldn’t invest if she is also going to sell her artwork. Tell her it can create a tax conflict that is very difficult to deal with at tax time. That’s kind of true, since it is different if you’re selling your own artwork in a building you invest in rather than just selling your artwork to someone else.
Is there anyway you could get involved with this mystery woman to find out what’s going on? Like, do you have anything that could be sold in that “museum”? If so, ask your friend if the woman will also show your artwork, books, crayon drawings, whatever. Hopefully the woman will loop you in and you’ll get the same kinds of requests as your friend and can see what’s happening. If it’s actually fraud, you could go to the authorities with the email, texts, or whatever.
Did she actually meet the woman in person? If it’s just over email, then the “woman” could be anyone anywhere in the world.
Sounds bad, but who knows. Did the artist meet this woman in person, or just online? Did the woman see any of her artwork?
You could try to air your suspicions, in a non-snarky way. But if the artist is convinced this is the real deal, I wouldn’t push too hard. Due diligence is her responsibility after all.
If she’s strong enough willed to do it, she could string the potential scammer along. Just a few very casual conversations here and there and see how long it takes for your friend to get asked for either money, some type of credentials or her signature on something.
Unless your friend thinks this person is for real and gets a lawyer, all communications should stop at that point.
Personally, I’m more of a ‘wow, that sounds great, let me know when you’re getting close to opening’ type of person. That works for any of this kind of stuff. If the person is real, they’ll get in touch with you, if they’re a scammer, they’ll hopefully realize you’re not a good mark and they’ll move on.
But just for kicks, the person said they already have a location, right. Have your friend ask them for the address and see if she can get a straight answer. That’d be the first step.
Certainly the first thing I would do is ask the benefactor for a list of these “other museums” she has opened. If none of them actually exist, or they clearly were not affiliated with the benefactor, that should convince your friend that the woman is a fraud. If she sees that evidence but still thinks everything’s on the up & up, there’s probably not much more you can do but watch the train wreck.
I have no expertise in this area, but this is my WAG too. Has The Artist met The Museum Lady in person?
Voyager, do you know The Museum Lady’s name? A search of civil lawsuit records in your state and others where she did business might reveal some relevant information.
I’m not clear if this is supposed to be a museum or a gallery.
But putting that aside, it this is a scam, it’s probably the obvious one. At some point the museum/gallery owner will show up and claim there’s been some unexpected obstacle in opening the exhibit. So sad, but it looks like you won’t get your opening after all.
The OP’s friend will be distraught and will ask if there’s anything that can be done. The owner will say something “Well, I guess if you were willing to put forward the twenty thousand dollars for this building code inspection, that would clear up the problem and we could open on schedule. Of course, I would insist on reimbursing you for the money after we open.”
One other possibility - this person is genuinely opening a gallery in your town, and called your friend to see if she would let her list her work. Your friend inflated it in her own mind into “They are opening a museum that will only be my work”.
If I had to guess, it’s a scam. Even when galleries are legit, they can still look an awful lot like a scam (the owners make all the money and the artists get bupkus.) But there exists a possibility that this person is legit.
Addendum - in the town I am living in now, there is a small store selling tchotchkes, barely getting by. They had a second entrance on the street that, for some reason, led to a large closet. I suspect that space was a small sandwich counter at some point, hence the second entrance. Anyway the owner found an artist to sublet and use the closet as her ‘gallery’. There’s enough space for her to put up about six pictures, and she sits in there all day looking lonely. That might be the kind of situation your friend is getting into.
I’m not clear on whether religious artist lady is the scammer or the scammee. Either way, the right thing to do is inform local law enforcement that you believe there is a scammer operating int he local art community, and tell them what you have learned. They are both more likely to get the needed information, and more likely to be able to protect your friend if she is innocent.
I found that link in my search. It doesn’t seem to be what’s going on here, unless the first step in building this museum is buying lots of art as in the link. It’s possible.
I didn’t want to be specific, but there were supposedly museums opened up all over the world and also in a specific Bay Area town. I could search for museums there.
