Wow, this is shocking. Auction houses had until today to contract MEARS for their services. In order to do so, they had to agree to certain disclosures including

"Disclosure of Ownership.

Open, Accountable, and Verifiable Bidding practices.

Public notification of any and all alterations, changes or modifications to products. "

Only one auction house- Robert Edward Auctions signed up. I am stunned.

Oh well, more work for Lampson and the 100% Authentic Team, (which is an authentication service, but isn't at the same time because they have no contact info, and there's something about it being just a way to track COAs blah blah blah.)

Auction houses, you have shown your true selves today....

Thumbs up to MEARS for making this statement and to Rob Lifson at REA for continually being an advocate of full disclosure.

Here is the story on mearsonline written by Dave Grob.

http://www.mearsonline.com/news/newsDetail.asp?id=336

Eric