Tuesday, January 31, 2017

14 ARTWORKS STOLEN BY A GALLERY IN SINGAPORE. SHOCKING TRUTH.

Thieves work at night, as they don't want to be seen. Scammers avoid publicity, as they lie and pretend to manipulate the human trust. We want to bring this case to the public eye, to help others not to fall into such trap. Please help us share this story with the world.

Publication in Singapore press: http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/arts/artists-owed-up-to-1m-worth-of-artworks-by-singapore-art-gallery-mandala-fine-art

In April 2016 during ADEX Singapore Alexander Belozor signed an Artistic talent management agreement with the Mandala Fine Art Gallery



After his 14 unique underwater paintings were left with the gallery, the artist did not receive any money, the Mandala Fine Art Gallery
 has done nothing that was promised or agreed, the owner of the gallery Rayan first stayed in touch, then avoided contact and finally disappeared, the location of artworks is unknown, in response to attempts of the Consular of the Embassy of Ukraine in Singapore to confirm the location/safety of artworks from Rayan the artist was threaten with "consequences" and it was stated to the Consular the artworks belong to the gallery.  The gallery phone number does not work. Rayan is in touch from the US number in a messenger.
We have kept silence in hope of positive resolution of this situation, but unfortunately after many months we realized we have no other choice left but to publish this information and let it be available publicly to warn other artists. 
If the Mandala Fine Art Gallery will get back in touch and will return the artworks as we asked many times, we will remove this information and will not pursue this situation further.
The loss of artworks and this whole situation caused Alexander Belozor and his family very strong moral, physical and financial damage, Alexander Belozor  had to have long recovery in the hospital as a result of the attitude and the actions of the Mandala Fine Art Gallery.

UPDATE: After the publication of this post Rayan appeared after several months of silence, contacted Yaroslava Belozor and Alexander Belozor and blackmailed to BURN THE ARTWORKS if this post is not removed. 
He wrote many messages, the last one said "Helll Slava. This is my last message. All the works are safe. Nothing stolen. If you are acting like idiots and spresding things about me ; I NEVER FORGIVE YOU. I dont give one single painting / I will burn them and send the video for you. Because i didnt steal but after making me a thief; im not fucking afraid and BURN EVERYTHING. IF YOU NEED TO TALK ; Call and discuss things in peace. DONE !"
Imagine a gallerist whom you trusted your artworks to disappear and then write you this. After this he called, said he respects Alexander and offered to cooperate further. Later he again sent threats "to make suffer". 

But even after this we are ready for constructive actions and peaceful resolution. Rayan disappeared for many months and we wanted to find him to return artworks back. Unfortunately, Rayan himself did not leave us any other choice but to go public with this case. 
We want our artworks back. We won't demand 2000 USD that he promised to reimburse for airtravel, but Rayan, just simply return the artworks, please contact the Embassy of Ukraine for that.

After the 14 artworks are returned to the artist, all the information we published about this incident will be removed.

The detailed story is as follows.

In January 2016 Alexander Belozor was contacted by a woman named Ying Cai through Facebook, with offers of cooperation and invitation to visit ADEX Singapore. She states that her profile was compromised and used by Rayan.




Ying Cai is a female artist, in her public profiles she indicated herself as the founder of Mandala Fine Art Gallery, and as we found out later - as an artist herself was involved in the fraud with the forgery of a picture of photographer Vin Psk which was offered for sale at the event Mandala Fine Art organized by Rayan in November 2015, the Sri Lankan man with an official name Hemasiri Vitharan, who graduated from the University of Melbourne. You can read about the scandal in the news here.
After the scandal burst out in the media in summer 2016 Ying Cai (or Yingying Cai) had her  Facebook profile deleted and some commenters wrote that she is just a young artist and a victim of Rayan and he used her.

We don't know how he used her, but we are sure that in March 2016 he easily used her Facebook profile for writing messages for Alexander in March 2016 (after the incident with the Vin Psk picture already happened)








Everything was agreed, Alexander Belozor went to Singapore along with his daughter Yaroslava Belozor who was his interpreter. The ADEX event was great. Alexander and Yaroslava were accompanied by local young people, and the main assistant of Rayan was Harumal Joel Shaifee. All of them state they were not involved and asked not to publish their names. They said they got scammed as well. We believe them and want to focus on finding the scammer and the artworks.


During the event the page was full with content about Alexander Belozor.

 



The man on the left from Alexander Belozor is the former assistant of Rayan Joel Sebastian Harumal. He was the one who also signed the Agreement as a witness and the artworks were handed to him after the ADEX expo. When bewildered, in May, we called him, he said he only said he does not work for Rayan anymore. That is when we clearly understood Alexander Belozor became a victim of a large fraud and scam. Later we figured out he did continue working for Rayan at least for one more month. After the publication of the post all the assistants of Rayan contacted and asked to state that they play no part of Rayan's scandal and are helping us with information to help as much as they can. 
Joel Sebastian Harumal contacted Yaroslava many times and said he does not want his name to be associated with Mandala Fine Art, asked to remove his name from this blog, otherwise he would loose a client, however, his linkedin profile stated that he worked for Mandala Fine Art. He denies his involvement in scamming, helping to take away and hide artworks from Alexander Belozor, however, we believe it is impossible not to know the details like that. He does not want to help us find the artworks however.



Yaroslava Belozor says she searched through her camera and did not find a single picture together with Rayan. He avoided being photographed. Pictures how Alexander Belozor signed the agreement with Rayan were taken on Rayan's phone only.

Here is the image of Rayan from the Mandala Wildlife event in 2015, where the pirated copy of the photo of Vin Psk was on sale.



Look at this man. He calls himself Rayan, his legal name in the Sri Lankan passport is reported to be Hemasiri Vitharan. He reportedly studied in the Melbourne University in Australia.
He disappeared with 14 artworks of Alexander Belozor, did not pay or do anything he committed himself to. This situation has been lasting for almost a year now and it is causing profound moral suffering to Alexander and his family, apart from financial loss and illness. If you know this man, Rayan, where he is, his other names that he uses, what he does apart from art exhibitions or if you know about his other frauds and whom he is connected to - please inform us in comments or by email. You will be anonymous and rewarded.

We contacted the ADEX organizers and we hope for their support in solving this situation.

We urge everyone mentioned in this text to help us with information regarding artworks location.

We also urge you to comment, share and republish this post. Our main purpose is to draw attention of artists to the depth of scam that can happen to them and warn, so that nobody has to endure such suffering as Alexander Belozor and his family.

Any support for Alexander Belozor is welcome and we will be thankful.

His email is belozor.com (at) gmail.com

There were other artists who suffered from Rayan. You can contact Alexander by this email and we can work out together on some solution. 
If you saw any of these artworks anywhere - please inform us.


Two artworks made during the ADEX that also remain with Rayan and refuses to return them














Mandala Fine Art Gallery page after the artworks were handed over to them. No event, no promotion, nothing was done by the gallery as was agreed. Rayan only says the artworks are "SAFE"

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