Ten artists accused London’s Arusha Gallery of failing to pay nearly $700,000 in a joint statement on Thursday Art newspaper. A day later, several more artists reached out to help Artnews Complaint the gallery’s actions and claim they owe money as well.
Thursday’s joint statement came from artists Pippa Young, Anna Rocke, Plum Cloutman, Ilona Szalay, Megan Rea, Kate Walters, Gail Harvey, Morwenna Morrison, Helen Flockhart and Charlotte Keates. In the statement, they claimed they face “extreme difficulties in getting payments for sales jobs, often waiting for months or even years to get their owed.”
But, according to her attorney, Jon Sharples, the biggest complaint artist is Keats, who worked with the Arusha Gallery for a decade. (Arusha opened in Edinburgh in 2013 and in London in 2023.) In statutory demands made by Sharples, Keates said she is owed £430,000 ($580,000) from the sales of artworks dating back to 2023. However, Keates did not sign consignment agreements with the gallery and the gallery’s owner, Bella Arusha Collins King, has reportedly denied in legal letters that Keates is owed so much, according to Tan.
In an email, Sharples told Artnews Keats’ agreement with Arusha “is verbal and undocumented, but apparently a binding shipment agreement, as Charlotte authorized Arusha to act as an agent for selling her work.” Sharples further argued that despite the lack of “specific payment terms”, the law means payments should be made “a reasonable time.” He added: “Arusha’s non-payment dates back to the show they performed for Charlotte in May 2023, so there is no credible argument that they are legally entitled to withholding for so long.”
In the review of legal letter Tan, Collins King’s attorney Neville Takiar believes Arusha Gallery has the right to cut 50% off its recent partnership with luxury fashion brand Hermés.
Sharples raises objection to this characterization Sepiasaying Arusha’s statement “has no advantage at all, is a powerless distraction to the straightforward reality, that is, Arusha Gallery has encountered trading difficulties and retained Charlotte’s funds to block shortages elsewhere in the business.”
The gallery does admit Sepia Some payments to artists are missing, “We are very sorry to feel that some artists are still not getting owed and some clients are not paying for their jobs; we understand how serious this is.”
Keats is far from the only artist who claims no payment. Plum Cloutman, one of the artists who signed the joint statement, told Artnews She owed her $3,000 on a sale of the show that she held in Arusha a year ago. In the case of Cloutman, she said she did sign a shipment agreement with the gallery, but the agreed payment window passed.
“After the show, I paid £40 or £45 a day to get many sketches, sometimes every other day, but not always a day, and the payment in the day never exceeds one payment,” Clotman said. “After the payment window of the consignment agreement, I started to really worry that the gallery signed it. Eventually, I got the salary for the remaining three paintings, but that was after dozens of pleading emails, and I had to borrow money to pay my taxes. Bella promised that I would pay by tax termination, but it was unwavering, but it didn’t happen.”
Four other artists (not named in the statement) advanced to Artnews Claims that Arusha owes them money to sell artworks: Beth Carter, Andrei Pokrovskii, Fiona Finnegan and another person who demands not to be named for fear of revenge. Bruno Gilbert, who represents the trust of the late Scottish artist Norman Gilbert, also told Artnews Arusha owes trust funds for the sale of artworks.
Finnigan tells Artnews In the email. She said she signed a shipper agreement with the gallery. “I also learned that some of my works may have been sold but not delivered, while others remain stored due to unresolved expenses. My experience doesn’t seem unique.”
Meanwhile, Carter told Artnews She said in an email she started working with the gallery. She said that over the past two years, galleries have become less reliable and payments have been frequently delayed. Collins King claims, “continuously promises to pay via certain dates and then pay via those dates that have no payment or explanation,” adding that the gallery still owes her about $8,600, about two pieces delivered to clients in January.
“The courier who delivered them has not received the salary for this delivery,” Carter said. “I recently contacted me by a collector who has paid me one of my jobs but has not received it.
Artists who want to remain anonymous tell Artnews They have produced about 30 works to Arusha in 2023. “I began to doubt some problems, and I asked my friend, who is a well-known entertainment lawyer in New York City, wrote Bella’s letters to try to get my job back because I was worried about sales because there was no sales happening, and so many sales,” they wrote in an email. “After most of the back and forth, they finally sent me all the work, but at least I have it now.”
Gilbert claims Artnews Arusha owes Norman Gilbert’s estate seven uninvoiced invoices, totaling about $28,000, from 2023 to this year. “What is outstanding is the oil paintings we want to return, or £3,409.09 ($5,000) we want to send back,” Gilbert said in an email. “While delaying and giving delays to pay for the art sales invoice and giving countless excuses, we are often guaranteed to expose additional exposure of my father’s paintings, the extra Family County Gallery and the Frieze Masters Show in London at the European Art Fair, none of which are.
Neither Collins King nor her attorney responded Artnews‘Request a comment.
In a statement Tan, Arusha pointed to the recent stagnation in the art market and said “expression was unexpectedly declined in 2024 and 2025”. The gallery also said that Guy Rowland Maxwell Bargery, a partner and co-owner of Collins King, caused trouble in the unexpected death of January. The statement said the gallery “worked hard in the crisis and turned the situation around in recent months”, which included “shrinking business, seeking time to pay arrangements with creditors and working honestly in exchange for these difficulties.”
Despite the struggles of the gallery, Arusha Sepiaplans are still being forced to build health and exhibition spaces in the suburbs of Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales. The space will be located in a historic cottage called Llwynywermod, the former Welsh vacation home of King Charles. Sepia The gallery, which the gallery posted on Instagram and Facebook in January, will become a “new flagship venue for dynamics” and “is envisioned as a gallery with extra spacious space,” the report said. [and is due to be an] Outstanding destination for contemporary art, art education and culture. ”These posts have since been deleted.
In Arusha’s statement SepiaCollins King said the Welsh Space is “a completely independent business whose main focus is not and not art.”
One of the young artists signed a joint statement, Artnews Collins King asserts that the Welsh project has nothing to do with art. “She forced me to hold an exhibition there this May, and she wanted me to make a painting to be part of a ‘permanent collection’,” Young said. “It’s the contemporary art center along Hauser and Worth in Somerset.”
Young added that she is part of WhatsApp group, “at least 25-30 artists have suffered in the hands of the gallery.”
