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Curiosity cuts man's family cruise short
When Mark Jacobs boarded a ship to enjoy a relaxing cruise around Scandinavia this month with his wife, his children and his parents, the last thing he expected was to be escorted off the liner by uniformed officers from the Oslo Police Department.
Jacobs says his only offense was downloading information about an art auction business run onboard the ship that has been the subject of numerous lawsuits alleging unfair business practices, and then passing around a one-page fact sheet about the company to fellow passengers.
Just hours after sharing information on Park West Gallery and its history of litigation, Jacobs said, he heard his name called over the shipboard intercom system. He was notified he was being put off the ship the next day, July 26, in Norway, and port security officers from the Oslo Police Department were on hand to ensure that he left.
"My son's playing pingpong, and the police come to take me off the ship," Jacobs said yesterday in his Cortlandt home. "And all I did was distribute information."
Jacobs said he had to spend several hundred dollars to book a hotel room in Oslo and then buy a ticket back to London to reunite with his family and fly home. He lost the last two nights of his 12-day cruise, and now the former Green Party congressional candidate, activist and director of the Longview School in Cortlandt said he's ready to make some waves of his own.
"It left me feeling outraged," said Jacobs, 41. "People are being duped, and my rights aren't protected when I'm on a cruise ship."
Jacobs said his curiosity was aroused when he heard about an auction involving artworks and prints associated with Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, among others.
"It sounded like a small art museum, on this cruise ship," he said.
After some research on his laptop, Jacobs said, he came across media and legal reports about Park West. A number of customers have sued the company, claiming the works it sells are significantly overpriced, and in some cases, "little better than a poster," according to one recent lawsuit. The auction company denies any wrongdoing.
A class-action lawsuit against Park West and Royal Caribbean filed in Michigan earlier this month says "the artwork sold at the shipboard auctions is low-value or worthless, often mechanical reproductions ... and is sold at inflated prices." The lawsuit claims that Royal Caribbean gains a roughly 20 percent portion of the sales generated onboard during the auctions. The events are held in international waters, the lawsuit says, to put the auction business beyond the legal reach of U.S. or European consumer protection laws.
Jacobs said he passed around the fact-sheet he compiled to other passengers settling in for an auction where free Champagne was being served. "I was worried for my fellow passengers ... I felt like I had to say something," Jacobs said. He is now considering legal action.
Jacobs' wife, Elena Pousada, took a picture of her husband being escorted off the ship, one that probably won't make it into the family scrapbook. "They destroyed my vacation," Pousada said. "Having lost him for two days, it was certainly less than pleasant."
Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez, sent this statement yesterday: "Various guests reported to the ship's staff that Mark Jacobs was disrupting the onboard art auction by distributing a flyer to guests. The ship's Hotel Director and Staff Captain met with Mr. Jacobs and explained that his behavior was inappropriate and in violation of the guest conduct policy. In addition, they explained that failure to act in accordance with the policy could result in removal from the ship at the next port of call. Mr. Jacobs continued to be uncooperative and difficult, which resulted in a decision to disembark him the following day in Oslo, Norway, the next port of call."
A lawyer for Park West, Robert Goldman, said the company operates in a responsible manner and called the civil lawsuits "unfounded."
"Park West has hundreds of clients who were satisfied by what they've purchased over the years," Goldman said. With the recession, he said, "it's not surprising some people decide they want to reverse their purchases."
He said the company has been "viciously attacked on the Internet" and drawn into continued litigation "in hopes of a payday down the road."
Theresa Franks, a critic of Park West and the cruise lines that do business with it, said she found the recent case involving Jacobs "shocking."
Franks, an art collector who runs a business certifying and registering collectibles that is also being sued by Park West, said, "They should be telling passengers that there's a cloud over the artwork. People have a right to know."
Martinez wouldn't comment on the lawsuits but said, "Royal Caribbean denies any allegation or suggestion that it has done anything wrong. We take very seriously the issues that have recently been raised regarding some of Park West's business practices."
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