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Missing painting. Advice needed!
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Message
Posted
Hi, I would be very grateful for any advice regarding a missing piece of artwork.
My daughter was approached by a popular gift shop in the town where we live to have Christmas cards made of a painting she did of a local church.
We were advised by the gift shop manager to bring her painting to the shop in July so that they could scan the painting and then send the image to the company that produces their cards.
Over the next two months I went into the shop a number of times to ask how things were going and if my daughter and I could collect her painting.
The manager kept saying there were delays, then that they were having problems scanning the painting to a high quality enough image to the card company.
Finally we were told in October that the gift shop had sent the painting to the card company so they could scan it themselves for the cards to be made.
After much delay and several emails. I received an email in November from the gift shop manager to say that the cards were now in the gift shop.
My daughter and I went to have a look and the manager gave us some packs of the cards; my daughter was not paid for the use of her painting for the cards so being given these cards was her ‘payment.’
My daughter and I were a bit disappointed to see that the entire painting had been dramatically changed to look like a very young child’s picture. The colours were muted and some of the image had been altered and things taken out.
My daughter’s name is on the back of the card but this looked nothing like the original painting. At no point were we consulted about the changes or asked if it was okay for her painting to be sent to the card company.
My daughter and I asked the manager while we were in the shop for her painting now that the cards had come back from the card producers.
The gift shop manager told us that the painting would normally be sent back separately by the card company. Two weeks later we had heard nothing and getting really concerned I emailed the manager to ask if my daughter’s painting was back at the shop yet? I was told that ‘there is still no sign of your daughter’s pic…the company said they have sent it back but we haven’t had it yet.’
We had not seen the painting since we first handed to the manager in July. I had felt uneasy for several months but told myself that the gift shop was a well established shop and to not worry. Everytime I spoke to the manager over the four months they had had the painting she reassured us things were in hand.
It didn’t make sense that it would take that long to scan a painting and have it back!
I spoke to the manager in person a couple of days after receiving her email about my daughter's missing’ painting. It had apparently still not come back. She said maybe it had got lost in the post?
Surely the card company would have sent it by recorded delivery?
Concerned I asked the manager for the card company’s contact details so I could speak to them directly.
My daughter was understandably quite upset. The manager told me she would email me the contact details.
That was 10 days ago. I have sent her polite emails to remind her that she said she would email us the contact details but she has not got back to us.
What was supposed to be a positive experience for my daughter has turned into a regrettable situation.
The cards look absolutely nothing like her original painting but they have her name on the back. We weren’t consulted throughout the process and now my daughter’s painting which (she had previously won an award for) as gone missing.
I’m sorry this is a bit long but any help or advice would be very much appreciated. We are devastated that it has gone missing. Thank you.
Edited
by Rachel Miller
Posted
I think you need to contact the company to which the painting was sent - the gift shop is presumably acting as their agent, and are not a specialist giclée printing company. There are certainly major differences in the capability of scanners, so it's not surprising that the shop's equipment was not able to deal with your painting and they had to send it away. We learn from experience, and while this is not to the immediate point, I would not use an intermediary with something like this, but would approach the printing company directly, having checked their reputation; I would send the painting by recorded delivery and request its return by the same means.
However, you are where you are - I can only suggest that you short-circuit this pass-the-parcel approach by the shop and speak to the printers themselves; if they have sent the painting back - which they should have done by recorded delivery - and either the Post Office or other courier has lost it, you have a claim against them which it might be worth pursuing through the small claims court if you can't get satisfaction from them in any other way, e.g. through your local authority's trading standards department. If the painting was of significant value - which could be commercial or sentimental - then I would also consult a solicitor in the last resort: better to avoid that expense if you can, but you've not got very far by being polite and reasonable....
The cautionary tale here is never use intermediaries when dealing with printing from original works: the more people involved in the chain, the greater the chance of things going wrong. I hope you have a happy resolution to this in the end.
Posted
Having read your email again, I see that you have requested the card printer's contact details: it's not good enough that you have not received them - this is a simple request, the shop manager must know the identity of the company, and I would now escalate this by: 1) advising the shop manager, or proprietor, that you will approach the trading standards department of your local council; 2) actually doing just that; 3) seeking legal advice as either your last step or if there's any problem with trading standards suggesting they're not likely to be of much help (they're all overworked). The Citizens' Advice Bureau, if you have one, may help with limited free legal advice.
You need to make the shop sorry it ever tangled with you - however stressful it might be for you, it's a matter of business reputation for them; they've already done themselves no favours on that front.
Posted
This is disgraceful! Not just the unacceptable delay in getting the painting returned to your daughter, but the fact that its been digitally altered without your consent…
If that was one of my paintings, I would demand that all the cards printed to date, be destroyed, you just can’t do this kind of thing!
So, we are were we are, what’s the next step…
Again, if it were me, I would go into the shop and demand the name of the printers, and I would refuse to leave until I had it.
Then, assuming that I was successful, and I wouldn’t leave until I was, I would ring the printers whilst still at the shop and find out what is going on!
You can then confront the shop owner in real time and see what is going on.
Civil lawsuits and the kind are expensive, you can’t realistically go down that route for this comparatively small amount involved.
Good luck.
Posted
What a sad and awful story! A few years ago I had a selection of cards and Giclee prints printed by a local and reputable printer who came recommended and was excellent. I had to take my paintings there and check the images before cards were actually printed, and would not have used an intermediary, but that’s your situation and as the lads have said, you need to find the next step.
I would assume that they still have on computer, the original photo of your daughters work before manipulation? In which case maybe you could ask them to produce some more cards as she intended? At least then you could use them or sell them elsewhere.
Hope you get some satisfaction in this.
Posted
Hi Alan, I agree with your suggestions. Having emailed and called and still not having the card company’s number two weeks later, going into the shop again looks like being the only answer.
Last time the manager said the shop was too busy to write down even the name of the company and she would email it to me. That was ten days ago. Several emails and a phone call later and being told she would send me the details and still nothing unfortunately so the only thing left as far as finding out is to go to the shop and not leave until I have got the card company’s number and called them their and then.
Yes, the change in the card design will also need to be dealt with!
Edited
by Rachel Miller
Posted
I would stand outside the shop with a placard. One side would say, they have not returned my artwork.The otherside would say, this company misled me. They appear to be messing you about with no straight answers. Do not stand for it. Contact trading standards immediately to see if they can offer advice.
Posted
Hi Tessa, unfortunately the gift shop was not the intermediary.
The manager originally said she would just scan the painting and we could then collect it in a week.
This turned into two months with the manager saying each time she was on to it and not to worry.
Then she told us she had decided to send the painting to the card company to scan without asking our permission first because her scan hadn’t been good enough after all.
I have asked the manager numerous times for the card company’s name and contact number. Each time she has said okay but then has come up with an excuse to delay giving us the details.
What you suggest is a good idea but apparently the original scan the manager did no longer exists.
It has been very frustrating but we will definitely be following everyone’s suggestions to take further action.
Edited
by Rachel Miller
Posted
I might have a nasty suspicious mind, but the shop's refusal to give the name of the card company is ringing warning bells and I wonder if in fact they even exist. Or whether the shop did in fact do an unsatisfactory scan which damaged the painting in some way? So they are using this "lost in the mail" as an excuse not to return a damaged painting? The digital altering has me suspicious as well. The advice given to go to the shop and refuse to leave until you have answers sounds good to me, and I'd stop being reasonable. Small claims court depending on the cost sounds good, even as a threat. My instinct, and this might not suit you, if you don't get satisfactory answers from a personal visit, would be to send them a lawyer's letter, again depending on cost, setting out what remedy you want. You probably wouldn't want to take it further with a lawyer but might act as a threat? I think this would be feasable here but I don't know the costs in the UK. It is business reputation after all. RE the placard suggestion, is there a way of using social media to warn other people about this, without running some sort of defamation risk? I do hope you get a resolution, please let us know how you get on.
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