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Breaking News from AutographAlert.com:
July
27, 2009 Autograph Magazine
Bullies the UACC Lawsuit Threaten Against www.autographalert.com We would like to thank all our readers for their support of our last article
Autograph Collector Magazine What were You Thinking?
To be fair we did get a half dozen negative emails basically all reading the same way and same style of writing and all signed using different first names. For the most part, it appears that one person was behind most of the emails. It is clear that a Florida based autograph operation with several galleries throughout the State is under attack. American Royal Arts has been in the business since 1986 and has grown to become the leading publisher of Entertainment Fine Art in the world. According to this company they have formed partnerships, many exclusive, with some of the most important icons of the 20th and 21st centuries in the entertainment world. America Royal Arts (ARA) was Disney’s largest dealer for over ten years and Jerry Gladstone, President of ARA was chosen to be on Disney’s advisory board. ARA has held many worldwide publishing rights including Apple Corp., Warner Bros., Dreamworks, Fox Studios, King Features and many others. To name just a few, presently ARA is under license with Frank Sinatra Enterprises, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Joe Petruccio, and represents artwork from "Rocky" under license from MGM Studios. ARA is an approved dealer with Upper Deck and just had a signing with Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. As mentioned earlier ARA has been in business for 23 years. www.autographalert.com contacted the Florida Better Business Bureau and has discovered this company has an A+ rating. All the above is most impressive. ARA certainly got the attention of companies who claim to authenticate autographs and the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (UACC). According to an interview www.autogaphalert.com had with Mr. Gladstone we were told that a well known representative from PSA/DNA contacted him requesting that PSA/DNA be the authenticating company for ARA. Mr. Gladstone knew PSA/DNA had a very low rating with the California Better Business Bureau and decided to pass. The response from the PSA/DNA representative was one many of us has heard in he past "you are either with us or against us." The UACC took the initiative and it was they who contacted ARA. A representative of the UACC, Al Hallonquist who holds the position of Director personally sat down with Mr.Gladstone requesting that ARA become a UACC Registered Dealer. Every member of the UACC has read the clubs hype of how a dealer is completely vetted by the UACC before being allowed membership. ARA was vetted and Mr. Hallonquist even took the time and visited an ARA gallery to look over the inventory. American Royal Arts was accepted as a registered dealer, Dealer #301, and issued the registered dealer certificate.
It appears within days of ARA becoming a UACC Registered Dealer word of this got to Steve Cyrkin, publisher of Autograph Collector Magazine. Cyrkin sent the following email to Michael Hecht (President of the UAAC) and to the UACC Board Members.
It is clear that the UACC quickly
reacted to Cyrkin’s email resignation. They had a chance to defend their actions after chasing ARA to be a member, vetting
ARA, visiting his gallery and inspecting ARA’s inventory and instead of declawing a bully they folded like a cheap suit.
ARA was stripped of its UACC Dealer membership and the same RD#301 was given to the next dealer in line. The membership of
the UACC was not told of these actions by their President and Board of Directors. It has been kept quiet, until now. This
is what happens behind the scenes in this club. It is a fact that Cyrkin is a co founder of PSA/DNA. He allows PSA/DNA to run a full page ad in every issue of Autograph magazine. Cyrkin wrote an article in the February issue of Autograph magazine on How to buy Rock…Without Getting Rolled". Cyrkin writes under his Rule #4 about authentications: " The most widely accepted ones for rock ‘n’ roll are PSA/DNA.." The very first one listed is the company he co founded and the same company ARA refused to utilize as their authenticator. In that same article Cyrkin specifically states: "There are three major dealer associations that carefully screen their members….these organizations are very careful about whom they let in, have dispute resolution services and remove members when they find cause." Whatever Cyrkin’s beef is with ARA, the proper procedure as he knows it would be to file a complaint with the UACC Ethic’s Board. The Board should follow there own procedures. What Cyrkin did was bully the UACC with his resignation. He used the power of his free space offered to the UACC in each issue of Autograph magazine to force the UACC to remove one of their approved dealers. www.autographalert.com asked Jerry Gladstone for a comment and his reply was: "I have always been extremely cautious with every autograph purchase we have ever made. I still feel that for ARA purposes, to help eliminate concerns about conflict of interest, using outside authenticators is beneficial. There has been some attention brought to the signed memorabilia the company handles, but in reality, much of what is offered by ARA is licensed limited edition memorabilia which has100 percent provenance from companies such as Elvis Presley Enterprises, Frank Sinatra Enterprises, Brian Wilson, Sylvester Stallone, Upper Deck and others. I wish others would stand up to the apparent hypocrisy throughout the industry." |
