STOLEN ARTWORK (again) !

Well, it's happened again.  The Chinese factory artists are selling this work of mine on ebay as an original.  I painted this quadtych for Dick Blick a couple years ago to advertise their canvas four packs.  Blick company paid me and now owns the original.

An alert artist remembered my painting from the Blick catalog and saw it for sale on ebay.  Check out this link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Abstract-Handmade-oil-painting-Modern-Art-AN160-/230594782849?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item35b0852681
If you check out the seller, it even shows Chinese artists in a factory-like setting reproducing other artists work - they paint over a photo reproduction.  It's a rip off for the original artist and for the buyer who thinks he's buying an original.

I'm going to take special precautions in posting multicanvas paintings because the rip off crooks seem to like diptychs, triptychs, etc.  I'm sorry if the image quality is not very good, but I have to take precautions against this sort of fraudulent practice.

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I just got this email from the ebay seller:

From User:	paintingartdeco (280) 98.9% Positive Feedback Member since Dec-31-04 in Canada Location: QC, Canada

                 

Dear Caroldnelson
I m so sorry about that. My studio and paintshop give me this listing.
I will delete this painting auction right away
Give me 2minutes

Regards and so sorry about that
Antoine

 Antoine references his studio and paintshop.  So he sells from the painting sweatshops in China that copy other artists. Antoine is not an artist - he's just the middle man who pushes this bogus art. Unfortunately, people are buying these mass produced copies to the detriment of genuine creative artists who produce their own work.

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Stolen artwork update

Thanks to all of my fellow artists and friends for your concern about this all-too-common issue that could affect any one of us. 
EmptyEasel.com has a couple articles about copyright infringement.  Click here to read them.

I have found out the iOffer is a site similar to eBay.  Sellers can set up a "store" to sell things.  When I contacted them about this issue, to their credit, they removed the listing.

However, the individual store owner, identified only as hnzp197738, still has my painting for sale.  I've sent him/her a message the he/she is infringing on copyrighted material and to remove it immediately.

I think it is incredible that the painting is listed as a "hand painted original."  Totally bogus!!!  I think they make a print of a painting, and then paint over it with clear gel so it looks like brushstrokes to the untrained, half blind eye.  Or, they have factory artists, typically in China, add some paint on top of the print.  Even I could not paint such an exact match again without a print underneath.