Heritage Auctions News Story

[worldchamps]

This was on the local news here in Dallas, where Heritage is located. Watch the video it is pretty interesting how little work was done to prove these items were from a legit source....granted these are not sports items, but still an inside look at a major mistake an auction house got involved in.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa080206_lj_schechter.967a997c.html

[worldchamps]

I do give them credit though, they are offering full refunds on all these items, and are changing some safeguards to make sure this doesn't happen again.....so at least they are doing the right thing. I think that does need to be mention.

Still a bad situation though

[mvandor]

Tip of the iceberg, and we all know it. And while the PR spin sounds great, do any of us really believe somehow procedures changed dramatically for verifying authenticity after the media spotlight dimmed?

What % of auction house revenues would disappear if they REALLY started checking on provenance and retired Lampson? 50%? 70%? The hit would be huge and the expense of beefing authentication efforts substantial. These guys run easy money cash cows and they won't do anything to jeopardize that.