Accusations of fraud rocks the high end antiques world

The New York Times just broke a story that has shocked the upper crust of the antiques world. What I think most people should get from this story are two things.

First, don't think that just because an antiques/ art dealer is in the wealthy circles that their word is gold. As a collector you should only buy what you like, get a written guarantee on expensive items with documentation and provenance.

By the same token, don't shun a wonderful buy just because it comes from the hands of a picker or a lower end dealer. Many times you just have to get dirty when you find these things. Often pickers and dealers at the beginning of the food chain can come across some of the best finds in the market.

From the story:

MICHAEL SMITH, a prominent decorator in Los Angeles, was staggered when a friend called from London in early April with the news: John Hobbs, a London antiques dealer known for superb English and Continental furniture, stratospheric prices and wealthy American clients, had been accused by his longtime restorer of selling fakes.

Mr. Smith said he was panicked at the thought that two very expensive mahogany chests of drawers he acquired for a California financier in September — described on the invoice as a fine pair of English commodes, circa 1830 — might not be worth anything close to what he had paid.

His fears might have been justified. Detailed workshop records and photographs provided by Dennis Buggins, Mr. Hobbs’s restorer for 21 years, indicate that Mr. Smith’s commodes were designed and fabricated between 2004 and 2006, using materials plundered from several old wardrobes and a linen press. The cost, Mr. Buggins said, was about $55,000. The asking price was 365,000 pounds ($736,000 at the time), a retail markup of more than 1,000 percent, although Mr. Smith managed to pay $450,000.

Since last month, when The Sunday Times in London published Mr. Buggins’s initial allegations and Mr. Hobbs’s adamant denials, what began as a bitter financial dispute between the two men has become a source of anxiety for collectors and interior designers around the world... click here for the rest of the story.