Reply #9: How was it an attempt to equivocate?

[Coventina]

They aren't happy about the situation in China at all, in fact, one friend of mine experienced it first hand.

She's been studying the art scene in a particular Chinese city for some years now. She decided to hold an art show, here in the states, featuring about 5 of the artists from this city. She went and visited the artists in their galleries, gave them her proposal, which they all eagerly accepted. The agreement was as follows:

She would put on the show, publish the catalogue, fly them over for the show, ship their pieces over all at her expense. The only thing the artists had to pay for was to have professional photos taken of the pieces for the publication of the catalogue.

She and the artists together picked the pieces for the show, and signed the contract for the shipment and showing of each piece.

Several months later, she still had not received the images from any of the artists (the catalogue has to go for publication well in advance of the show).

After repeated requests to each of the artists for their images, they all admitted that the pieces agreed upon had been sold to collectors. She informed them that they needed to get the pieces back on loan from the collectors for the show, or they could not be in the show. The artists all insisted that they had other pieces for the show.

She explained to them, "We agreed upon pieces A, B, & C, not X, Y, & Z."
"But Americans will buy anything!" was the response.

She tried repeatedly to explain how a contract works, and that you cannot just change a contract on a whim, but she got nowhere, and had to cancel the show.

This all happened just in the last few months. She doesn't know if they really did sell all their pieces (it seems a little coincidental that every one sold!) or if they just didn't want to send their best pieces overseas (even though they were coming along as well). But my friend's position was that she was not going to host a show at her expense with mediocre work, even though the artists insisted "Americans will buy anything!"

So anyway, I'm relating this to show that they don't EXCUSE this behavior at all!