We were contacted by Nadia Ovchinnikova on 3rd March 2008 with respect to posting their exhibition competition details on Artists UK DotNet under our Opportunties section. The exhibition competition is being run by Mr. Evgeny Yukhnytsya, the owner of Castle Reaux, who is apparently a well-known poet from the Ukraine (although a Google search on Yukhnytsya gives nothing on him that was not written by his own staff).
We have recently received emails from an artist’s agent in Florida, USA and artists in Europe concerned about the legitimacy of this offer. We are currently discussing the issues with Nadia Ovchinnikova at Castle Reaux with a view to clarifying the terms of their offer and the auditing of the competition. If you are an artist who has submitted a painting to Château des Réaux we would like to hear from you, especially if you are based in the UK. Whether your feedback is positive or negative please contact us by email by clicking here. If you have not submitted work then you can leave your comments here. We hope to clarify the situation very soon.
The Battle of Pelennor Fields by Alan Lee
1S.Seshadri on Apr 9, 2008 at 12:52 pm:
I have received an invitation from Ms Nadia Ovchinnikova today(9th April2008) for participitating in the said exhibition.
I am an Indian and live in Mumbai.
Kindly advise me on the situation.
Thank you.
best regards
S.Seshadri
2Artists UK on Apr 9, 2008 at 1:43 pm:
Please check back here regularly as we intend to post information as we have it.
3Paddi Clay on Apr 10, 2008 at 8:07 am:
The advert for the Chateau des Reaux competition appeared in one of our papers - The Times - this week in Jhb. it is interesting that this advert is appearing in the non-European countries.
It aroused my curiousity as a journalist and I am looking into it. Including how payment was made for the rather large advert.
4Artists UK on Apr 10, 2008 at 9:30 am:
Please keep us informed of your investigations by posting comments here. We are still waiting for more detailed information from the organiser regarding who the judges are and how the competition and award of prizes is to be audited. We consider the 305 Euros to be paid for full title transfer on an original oil painting of any decent quality to be extremely low. However, this is clear from their contract and each artist has to decide for themselves how they feel about this. Our main concerns are the lack of information available on Mr. Evgeny Yukhnytsya and the lack of information available on the competition.
5Stefan Maguran on Apr 24, 2008 at 1:27 am:
Membres du Jury 1) Evgueny Yukhnytsya – Poète, Propriétaire du château des Réaux. 2) Conseil Général d’Indre et Loire, Région Centre, France (son représentant). 3) Yves Lemogne – Maire de Chouzé sur Loire, commune de la Vallée de la Loire, où le Château des Réaux est situé. France. 4) Francis Parent – Critique d’art, membre de l’AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art), Paris. 5) un Commissaire-priseur habilité (en pourparlers ; Mtre Pierre Cornette de St Cyr, Membre de la Maison de ventes Cornette de St Cyr, Paris).
This is from an add on artconcours.com
6Artists UK on Apr 24, 2008 at 9:31 am:
Thank you for your comment Stefan. Strange since they were so adamant they wanted the names kept as a “surprise”. As you can see, as long as you read French, Francis Parent is the only one whose place on this jury is at all creditable. A websearch on him reveals he is a published art critic. It is surprising he is prepared to sit on a jury with people who do not appear to be of a similar professional standing.
7Emanuela Terragnoli on May 21, 2008 at 12:50 pm:
Goodmorning! Scusate se lascio il mio messaggio in lingua italiana. Stavo facendo delle ricerche riguardo questo invito dal Chateau des Réaux, che sembra sia stato esteso a tutti i pittori del mondo, quando ho trovato il vostro sito che parla appunto di questo misterioso concorso.
Sono stata anch’io invitata e mi sono insospettita perchè : 1. non esiste un interlocutore diretto, i contatti avvengono in automatico esclusivamente attraverso il sito del Chateau. 2. all’invio della mia risposta comprendente una foto del dipinto con la descrizione. Ho ricevuto a distanza di una settimana esclusivamente un messaggio di registrazione di ricevimento, sempre in automatico. 3. Sempre nel sito del Chateau des Rèaux, nella sezione che richiede di lasciare la descrizione del dipinto ho trovato una serie di Diplomi d’onore prestampati che riportano il nome dell’artista e ridicole motivazioni “d’onore” che non sono altro che le frasi stesse di ringraziamento da parte dei pittori per l’invito ricevuto, oltretutto con la possibilità di stampa da parte degli artisti stessi.
Ho pensato a questo punto ad una colossale beffa! Ed ho proseguito le mie ricerche cliccando in internet il nome di Francis Parent, nominato nel regolamento del concorso, quale membro della giuria. Ho inviato a questo Signore una mail chiedendo spiegazioni riguardo il punto 3. Ovviamente non ho ricevuto alcuna risposta. Senza contare che il cosiddetto poeta, proprietario del castello, Evgueny Yukhnytsya, non compare in nessun sito web, oltre a quello del castello; ne deduco che sia un emerito sconosciuto…. Si potrebbe contattare a questo punto il Sindaco del comune di Chouzé-sur-Loire per capire, intanto se lui, Sindaco, esiste davvero, e, in caso positivo se é al corrente di questa faccenda.
Se avete ulteriori informazioni al riguardo, vi sarei molto grata, se me le poteste comunicare. Nel frattempo il mio modesto parere rimane quello di un grande scherzo di cattivo gusto! Molti cordiali saluti
Emanuela Terragnoli, Verona, Italy
8Artists UK on May 21, 2008 at 1:13 pm:
Thank you Emanuela. I’m afraid Italian is not one of my languages even though I have visited Italy many times so I think it is I who should apologise. For other non-Italian speakers we have run Emanuela’s post through some translation software. As always with translation software the translation is pretty awful but it’ll give some idea what is being said -
Sorry if I leave my message in Italian. I was doing research on this invitation from Chateau des Réaux, who seems to have been extended to all painters of the world, when I found your site that speaks precisely this mysterious contest.
I was also invited and I declined because: 1. there is no direct contact, contacts are made automatically through the website of Chateau. 2. the sending of my answer includes a photo of the painting with the description. I received a distance of one week only a message of registration of receipt, again automatically. 3. Also at the site of Chateau des Rèaux, in the section that asks you to leave the description of the painting I found a number of diplomas of honour pre-bearing the name of the artist and ridiculous motivations “of honour” that are nothing more than phrases same thanksgiving by the painters for the invitation received, moreover, with the possibility of printing by the artists themselves.
I thought at this point to a colossal joke! And I continued my research on the Internet by clicking the name of Francis Parent, appointed to the rules of the competition, as a member of the jury. I sent this to the Lord a mail asking explanations about the point 3. Obviously I have not received any reply. Not to mention that the so-called poet, owner of the castle, Evgueny Yukhnytsya, does not appear in any website, in addition to the castle, they assume that this is an emeritus unknown…. You may contact at this point the Mayor of Chouzé-sur-Loire to understand, if he Meanwhile, Mayor, it really exists and, if so, whether it is aware of this issue.
If you have further information, there would be very grateful if me could communicate. In the meantime my humble opinion remains that of a great joke in bad taste! Many cordial greetings
Emanuela Terragnoli, Verona, Italy
9Emanuela Terragnoli on May 21, 2008 at 1:43 pm:
Thank you very much for your reply and translation. I think that is sufficiently clear. Best regards
Emanuela Terragnoli, Verona, Italy
10Maler on Jul 13, 2008 at 1:35 pm:
The domain of the Château des Réaux was registered anonymously only 8 months ago with only the information about the contest (well, contest might not be the right word as all paintings are accepted and paid). 305 Euros is not much for professional artists but the main entrants are hobby artists and for me it is hard to believe someone would pay 305 Euros for bad and worthless paintings of unkown hobby painters. And they were paid!
Have you any news?
11Artists UK on Jul 14, 2008 at 4:11 pm:
How do you know that worthless paintings of unknown hobby artists have been paid for their paintings? If they are buying all paintings regardless of quality that is rather strange ….
12Maler on Jul 15, 2008 at 8:55 am:
1. On the web there are already some amateur artist that are proudly stating that Charteau des Reaux had bought their paintings.
2. Also on a german forum some report that they sent their images via Email and all were accepted to the contest. As far as I understood some already were paid 305 Euros after sending their paintings.
For me that is absolutely dodgy! That is not how the market works! I don’t have the time but thought about it to fake a really bad image and see if they tell me to send it to them.
I can think of 3 possibilities:
1. All people of the world have suddenly have become fond of each other and give away money.
2. The now owner of the castle had cheaply bought or rent the castle with the constraints to build up a gallery and now he is in need of a lot of artworks quickly.
3. This is a large-scale fraud and by attracted as much unsuspecting people as possible they are actually take everyones artwork and even pay them.
Read the contract! The english and the german contract differ a bit. paragraph 2.2 is missing in the german contract!
But doesn’t it says that buy receiving the 305 Euros you have sold ALL the rights of ALL your artworks (not only the painting for the contest!). Paragraph 5.1 : “Piece of work” means any piece of work (paragraph 1.4) and agreed price means the 305 Euros for the contest painting. Not sure what they will do with that. Maybe they want to make money buy sueing you later.
But maybe I am just too overcautious and there is nothing to it but at least I would not risk it for 305 Euros (beside no professional artist would do that for such little price, only amateur artist would consider this as a good price, so for me it is clear that they are aiming for that rather clueless folks.
We will see….
13Artists UK on Jul 16, 2008 at 9:22 pm:
Yes, the artist is signing over ALL rights to the artwork and it looks from the contract as if Chateaux Des Reaux can even display or sell it without even quoting the name of the creator of the painting. We’re not quite sure on what basis Chateaux Des Reaux could sue the artist other than if the artist was breaching the Chateaux Des Reaux copyright afterwards by licencing the artwork for use elsewhere, which would of course be illegal after they have signed that contract with Chateaux Des Reaux. We’d be interested in the URL’s of where amateurs are boasting of their sale to Chateaux Des Reaux. We’d have a look for them ourselves but right now we are up to our necks in both retail and trade orders and we always believe our customers come first