I wish I had followed my better instincts when I had taken up a NY gallery's offer to "represent" me. Not only did they take a chunk of money up front, but interested people had to go through the gallery. I made no contacts and was denied requests for names of those interested in my work. The gallery kept offering "services" that were supposed to market my work and help my career but of course had outragious fees. I went to many openings and found most other "gallery" artists were being milked for whatever they were worth. The contract of course was full of loopholes and ultimately I had taken them on "their word" that I had no hard evidence of their level of fraud.
My advice: anything that's not in writing is probably a scam; tape record your phone conversations, ask to see records of selling artists, and ask to meet some of their artists and clients. See if they can call your bluff; if they're going to represent you they ought to be happy to oblige. That fat fee up front is just the beginning; they'll fill you with false hope and run all the way to the bank with it. Like you say schmoo, if they made their money selling art they wouldn't need cash from artists.
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