Pashmin Art Gallery – Hamburg

I applied to the Pashmin Art Gallery for a group exhibition in Beijing. It will take place in an art museum. The gallery sent me an email with an extensive application form. It took me a lot of time to fill it out. Nowhere I could find information the costs. The gallery accepted my application and an assistant phoned me a few times. Then the gallery owner spoke to me and told me that I had to pay the shipping costs from Germany to Beijing and back. It was € 8,200, no matter how big the works were. Each of the 45 participants should pay the same. The gallery sent me the contract and a list of the costs. Instead of 1 exhibition, I should get 3, one in Beijing, one in their gallery in Shanghai and one in Hamburg. I should become artist of the gallery for one year. They couldn’t guarantee sales at the first exhibitions. They wanted a 30% commission. The cost schedule for the exhibition was very flat. It said, among other things, that I would have to pay 2 x 650 € gasoline costs! I wondered what I should pay this for …

I then spoke to artists who worked with the Pashmin Art Gallery. They advised me against it because the gallery asked for more and more money for its services, which was not agreed. The claims should have been up to € 25,000 (!!!!). It was also said to have been difficult to get their works back.

8 comments
  • Anonymous

    Stay away from these con men. This is not a legitamate gallery. It is a thinly disguised vanity gallery. They trick you and try to take as much money from you as possible pretending to be art magament. Its all a scam. The museum is also a scam. They charge you no matter what size painting a lot of money. Everyone pays the same amount no matter what size the work of art. Most likely they use much cheaper shipping by sea and keep the difference. They also lie about taxes and don`t give real reciets. There is so much that is shady about this operation. Its run by two Irainians and they have connections to China. I wonder really if this an art gallery at all or a front for some other illegal operation considering they do nothing like a legitamate gallery would. A lot of hassles. Extremely unproffessional. And very tricky. Stay away from them !!! On top of it all when you do a museum show with them no where is your name published !!! Not on any website at all !!! So whats the point? To tell your friends and family that you exhibited at a museum? In the art world everything has to be documented digitally for it to be considered legitamate. This is a scam. I can say this and they know who I am and they will not sue me. That is because the last thing they want is the government or media to look closely with a flash light at what they are really up to. Stay away from them. Save your money and same your energy. It leads no where to do business with them. If the authorities start looking into their organisation I am sure they will go to jail for fraud.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you for this post! I just had the same negative experience with this “Pashmin Art…tralala…”. It’s all so disappointing and frustrating, there’s some windy “dealer” on every dark corner pulling money out of your pocket. The withholding of really important information (costs, commissions…) this “company” (I don’t even want to talk about “gallery” here!) has drivento perfection. The verbose and redundant babbel of a representative of this “consortium” can be confidently booked under “cloud of smoke” – all nebulous, only very cumbersome to refute half-truths and insubstantial excuses that are not worth going into more detail. I can only advise against doing “business” with this company!

    Danke für diesen Beitrag! Ich habe gerade die gleiche negative Erfahrung mit dieser “Pashmin Art…tralala…” gemacht. Das ist alles so enttäuschend und frustrierend, dass an jeder dunklen Ecke irgend so ein windiger “Dealer” steht und dir das Geld aus der Tasche zieht. Das Zurückhalten von wirklich wichtigen Informationen (Kosten, Provisionen…) hat diese “Firma” (von “Galerie” will ich hier gar nicht sprechen!) zur Perfektion getrieben. Das wortreiche und redundante Gestammel eines Vertreters dieses “Consortiums” kann man getrost unter “Rauchwolke” abbuchen – alles nebulöse, nur sehr umständlich zu widerlegende Halbwahrheiten und substanzlose Ausflüchte, die es nicht Wert sind, näher darauf einzugehen. Ich kann nur abraten, mit dieser Firma “Geschäfte” zu machen!

  • Anonymous

    I got the contract very quickly at the time and sent it to my professor. He warned me not to sign it. The gallery’s answer above is wrong on many points, but I don’t feel like discussing it with them.

  • Anonymous

    The writer has written groundlessly, mixing different things to distort our image and to cast doubt on how we do art management and how we promote artists internationally. The writer has also previously and anonymously sent this comment via our website. We ignored it at that time, but we do not ignore it this time.
    Instead of writing anonymously, others have written on google reviews with their names and you can contact them if you wish.
    If you have any questions, simply check our websites and call us or write us directly. We draw your attention to the following points.
    1. Gallery is one section of our mother organization (Pashmin Art Consortia: http://www.pashminart-consortia.com) and different departments work differently. The artists contact us mainly because of international art management.
    2. THE ARTIST CONTACT US FIRST, NOT VICE VERSA.
    3. Such an application form is not that extensive. The artist should provide a list of available artworks, of high quality, for a museum exhibition, plus list of recent exhibitions (preferably the last 3 years) and a short vita of ca. 300 words in English. We don’t think this is called extensive. 300-400 artists apply for a grand project and in the end, depending on the project, 30-45 artists are exhibited, more or less.
    4. Of course, the artist cannot find the costs online. We are talking about art management which is done individually for each artist. It is not a supermarket to buy something for a specific price. Plus, we have spent time reviewing the works of the artist in a meeting before calling the artist. Then we have called, it will take usually 20 – 30 mins. And no cent has been charged for these services. Then again continuous support is given for any questions, etc. When the materials for the application process are ready, they will be shared with a jury, some of whose members are in China and others in other countries. It will take some days to have the reply and IF the application is successful, the info will be sent to the finance department which is responsible for writing the agreement and calculation of the costs, mostly related to shipment and some administration issues like translation services, etc. All these are done without charging a cent. THEN the agreement and list of costs are sent to the artist who can read it carefully. IF THE ARTIST AGREES WITH THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS MENTIONED IN THE AGREEMENT HE WILL SIGN AND THEN THE LOGISTICS WILL BEGIN WITH OTHER ISSUES. Till the agreement is not signed, the artist does not pay a cent while hours of works have been done for the application process and writing the agreement and consulting. AND WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A MUSEUM EXHIBITION IN CHINA WITH ALL ITS COMPLEXITIES, NOT A GALLERY EXHIBITION IN EUROPE.
    5. The gallery has not accepted your application. It has been accepted by the jury related to the museum project.
    6. Yes, the assistant (art-management consultant) from the related department has called a few times (sometimes hours) but did you pay a cent for the call? No. And did you pay for the time they have devoted to consulting you? NO. Did you pay for the 12 months of organization for the project? NO. Do you pay for the major costs of the event? No. All the costs are mentioned to the artist in detail when it comes to the agreement.
    7. Generally speaking, the costs for shipment are calculated based on the number and sizes of the art pieces. However, there are some general issues/costs which should be done (like description of the pieces and translating the descriptions in Chinese, plus translating the vita of the artist in Chinese) for any artist, disregarding the sizes of the pieces.
    8. Quote: “Each of the 45 participants should pay the same”. This is absolutely false info. All artists are treated individually and the costs are calculated accordingly, if they are not supported by us or other parties.
    9. Nobody tells the artist to have 3 exhibitions instead of one if it has not been discussed previously either by phone or email. Some artists wish to be promoted on more platforms. IF their works are accepted for those platforms, then based on the plan of the art management, new promotional plans will be written for them.
    10. Usually, the artists are free to work with different galleries if they like. We do not limit them. Without referencing to the talks, etc., the writer is mixing things groundlessly.
    11. Why should we guarantee sales for an artist who is unknown in a new market? You can never guarantee sales. The market decides to buy your art or not.
    12. There are diffrent form s of promotional plans and sometimes we support the artists completely, sometimes their investors or collectors support them and sometimes they should support them themsleves. So there is not a one-format promotional plan. Our plan are flexible due to many factors.
    The exact cost is always mentioned in the agreement. If you agree with that, you will sign. If not, nobody asks you to sign. You are the one who needs to be seen on the ocean of art market. The costs are related to 3rd parties. We have to pay these costs to the third parties. We also care for all the major big costs of the exhibition.
    13. All the details are always sent to the artist. If they agree, they will sign and then the art management services are provided. Nothing happens without the official agreements.
    14. 25000 for what? Why don’t you or can’t you mention the details? When an artist wants international promotion on different levels, and for 2-3 years, the details, costs, etc., related to art management will logically be different. Any management requires investment and art management is not an exception. Different projects are handled diffrently, and thery are and can besupported differently.
    15. Why difficult? We have always sent the works and returned the unsold works back. Sometimes, due to regulations in China customs, the works should remain longer, etc. All details are communicated with the artist in a timely manner.
    16. For more info visit: http://www.pashminart-consortia.com or write us (info@pashminart-consortia.com) or call us (+49 (0)40 69 21 98 99).

  • Anonymous

    Such a nice blog on pashmina art gallery Hamburg and I hope you keep update us with such great tips and information in future too. This is a great post; I will share as much as I can.

  • Anonymous

    I applied for this exhibition in China looked like an opportunity, they suggested to chose several works from my website “ Estermano.nl” and talked about costs but not exactly how much. After reading this previous story I am not sure about it anymore do you have more reply’s about Pashmin art gallery So I can make a right decision.
    Greeting Nino Estermano
    ninowesterman@gmail.com

    • Anonymous

      Hi Nino, I would be very careful with them!! they want you to pay a huge amount for them to expose your work in China, they wanted my work but the price was almost 5000 euros ,
      GR. A

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