Don't get "Art Grinched" this holiday season or anytime

Current scams that are in vogue include galleries that are:
  Persuading the investors to invest in fraudulent artwork that has not been authenticated;
  advertising "buy to loan" properties with shady non-profits and make claims about unrealistic tax deferment;
  offering the chance to make a profit from buying up federally seized artwork;
  Targeting the low salaried people about to retire with claims about overrated emerging artists,hidden post war or hidden stolen art.And in some cases oversold commercially produced reproductions

Who are the scamsters?

Big box mall galleries? Definitely not!as they are using the same standards as any department store selling artwork  as a basis of the promise that they give to the investors. So then who are the scamsters? It is the rumor spreaders who are the actual scamsters. There has never been an instance in the history that an investor is victimized by a big box gallery such as Thomas Kincade or Wyland Marine. The Government never considers those business as fraudulent ones. Then why is it that a small group of people, with half baked knowledge on the art market in the USA, being allowed to spread wrong information to the customers or some new cache of  artwork discovered at some garage sale? This actually leads to a question as who are the victims. The victims actually are usually not the investors themselves directly but the companies which are into the business of buying artwork to sell to the prospective clients. The investors/clients should be aware of the fact and should take very calculated and informed step before believing the people who are the actual scamsters and they should take a prudent decision as to what should be done with their hard earned money.