Don't make the classic Newbie mistake!

cnn(dot)com/2013/03/20/business/sothebys-china-bowl/index.html
 
Buy a bowl for $3 at a yard sale. Let it sit in your living room for a few years. Get suspicious that there is more to the bowl. Discovered it is a 1000 year old Song Dynasty relic worth $2.2 million at auction.
 
Assume nothing and check everything!

Well I know that I do try and check everything.  However, if I see a "made in china", etc. type mark it just goes into X pile quickly.  Those items that look old, unique, glassware is heavy, have specific logo, etc. do get checked.

The coffee cups I'd miss as 80% of the time they just go into some pile quickly.  The few I've looked up to see if are worth anything are selling on ebay for under $5 with free shipping.  So they go in the shop for $1.99 or less.

Saved my buddy the other day with some liquor glasses he had.  Saw the crown royal logo on them and looked them up.  Ebay was $8+ sold items.  He put them in the store for $5.99 instead of just $.99 each. 

On the other side of this....

I went to an estate sale and the kids thought they really had something.
They found Salvador Dali art tucked away.  Even the estate company was advertising the great find.
Had them tagged in the thousands.

I went and looked.  They just didnt seem right....and I'm no art expert.
Went outside and started researching.   Went back and told them I was pretty sure they were fakes.

Man, they got pissed.  Saying they had a cert. of authenticity for each....

Went back on Sunday for the 50% off and asked about art.

Thy had called in an expert and sure enough.  Fake.   And he confiscated them.

Research everything.

Some do.  The big ones that work for museums, auction houses.....

They give you a receipt and file report with police/FBI.  You can fight to get it back.
You either turn it over or they call the police.

These were obviously being put off as originals, had certificates of authenticity.   Different than just a really good reproduction.

Plus they were trying to sell them....and sell them as originals.  That's a crime even if you don't know our selling forgeries.
Might be different if you just had them hanging on wall and someone saw them.

What's funny is its legal to have "replicas" of older works (no copywrite's) and some have become become more sought after than the original!


I don't think law enforcement gives a $hit if you have a forgery.  Only if you try to sell it, that's fraud.
Most likely wouldn't even care if you were selling a forgery as a forgery.  As in, the buyer knows its a forgery.  I mean, the FBI has all of 14 agents to investigate art crime world wide.  Don't think they care much about investigating a $1000 forgery....

Didn't that happen on one of the storage auction shows?

Yeah, it did. I can't remember who the artist was and I can't seem to find anything about it on the web either.

Didn't that happen on one of the storage auction shows?

The artist's name is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or as they referred to him on the show Toulouse-Lautrec.

wow thats a good find

Thy had called in an expert and sure enough.  Fake.   And he confiscated them.

What exactly do you mean "he confiscated them"?  It's perfectly legal to sell fakes if you advertise them as such.

Signed. Numbered. Cert of Authenticity.  Marked for sale at real price. Oh....and telling people they aren't fakes.   That's illegal.










 

That is insane! I go t a lot of garage sales but never come across the good stuff. Recently, my grandparents had to have their house cleared out. So my family was sorting and selling their stuff. They had some old mason jars are were worth $100+ and they sold them for $1 each!