report fraud selling on ebay / Thesaurus Fine Arts
FritzMagnum
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134622162_phony260.html
Sunday, January 26, 2003 - 12:17
a.m. Pacific
Buyer beware: All is not as advertised at Asian antiquities
dealer
By Duff Wilson, Sheila Farr and
Brian Joseph
Seattle Times staff reporters
© The Seattle Times Co., 2003
A tony shop in the heart of
Seattle's Pioneer Square
gallery district beckons buyers to
own a piece of
Chinese history:
A rare glazed tile from the Han
Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.
220), for sale for $900. An elegant
blue vase from the
Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1120),
$3,800. An exquisite
tricolor jar from the Tang Dynasty
(A.D. 618-907),
$12,000. An elaborate bronze
elephant from the
Warring States Dynasty (475-221
B.C.), $120,000.
To the eyes of tourists and
window-shoppers, the
gallery's wares may seem striking
in their age and
beauty. To the eyes of experts,
however, they are
something quite different.
The store's name offers an ironic
if unintentional clue:
Thesaurus Fine Arts. Just as a
thesaurus is a book of
words similar to other words, so
are at least some of
the so-called antique objects sold
in Thesaurus Fine
Arts only similar to the real
thing.
They are fakes, a Seattle Times
investigation has
found.
Indeed, experts insist that most of
the artifacts sold by
Thesaurus in its shop and on the
eBay Internet
auction site are much newer than
they are purported
to be. Independent tests performed
on two
certificated pieces The Times
purchased from the
gallery found that they were copies
worth only a
fraction of their selling prices.
The
world
demand
for
authentic
Chinese
antiquities
is
burgeoning,
and with
it the
market
for fakes.
Fraudulent
ceramic,
jade and
bronze
artifacts are ending up with
unsophisticated buyers — and occasionally even knowledgeable
collectors.
"It's a constant battle against
fakes," said Julian Thompson, Chinese art specialist at the auction
house Sotheby's.
The pieces sold by Thesaurus Fine
Arts are a trickle in the flood — but notable in that, unlike many
fakes, they are purportedly backed
by scientific evaluation. Experts say they know of no other art
dealer in the United States that
makes such sweeping claims on obviously phony pieces.
The operators of the gallery, one
of them a renowned economics professor and Nobel Prize
candidate who has taught at Hong
Kong University and the University of Washington, insist their
goods are authentic and say they
are "baffled" by findings otherwise.
But Asian art experts consulted by
The Times
universally agreed Thesaurus is
peddling frauds. The
gallery also sells contemporary
paintings, but it
specializes in antiquities. While
some of those might be
authentic, the experts agree, there
is no doubt that
many are not.
"They look bad through the window.
You don't even
have to look closely," said John
Stevenson, former
acting associate curator of Chinese
art at the Seattle
Art Museum (SAM). "I didn't go into
the store for a long
time; they're so obviously
reproductions."
Robert Dootson, a prominent
collector who is a SAM trustee and a member of its Asian Arts Council,
stopped in at Thesaurus when the
gallery opened in the summer of 1998.
"I was interested when I went in
there, but you just take one look and it's so obvious. And the
prices: If it were the real thing,
they'd be much more expensive," Dootson said.
William Rathbun, curator emeritus
of Asian art at the Seattle Art Museum, agreed.
"It's one of those
too-good-to-be-true things," he said. "People I know are too savvy to
go for that
stuff."
But many buyers — even some who
consider themselves knowledgeable — are apparently not that
savvy.
Brian Jacobs, a Bellevue
radiologist and Asian art
collector, bought two items from
Thesaurus last year.
He dealt with Edith Crighton, 74,
the genial manager
of the gallery and president of the
company.
Jacobs says Crighton assured him
that the pieces,
jade disks with ornate carving,
were from the Han
Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 220) and
provided
certificates of authenticity. He
talked her down to
$3,066, one-third off the asking
price and far less
than the pieces would be worth if
authentic.
"I knew just enough to be
dangerous," Jacobs says.
"I was driving home, saying either
I have the most
beautiful objects I'd seen, even in
books, or I just got
rooked. And as I got closer, I
realized I just got
rooked. You don't win the lottery
often."
Jacobs checked with several other
dealers who
confirmed the deal was too good to
be true. Citing
those dealers, he returned the jade
disks to
Thesaurus, and Crighton — this
time, not so genial —
gave him a refund.
Shortly afterward, an attorney for
the gallery — Kirstin
Dodge of Perkins Coie, Seattle's
largest law firm —
sent letters to three art dealers
Jacobs had consulted. Dodge demanded they "immediately stop"
making "disparaging and false
comments about Thesaurus and its merchandise" and warned the
dealers they could be sued for
defaming and hurting the business.
Furious, Jacobs filed complaints
with every agency he could think
of: the Seattle Police Department,
the state Attorney General's
Office, the U.S. Customs Service,
the FBI.
"Everybody said it was somebody
else's jurisdiction," Jacobs
says. "Those guys didn't want to
touch it."
So Jacobs, hoping to save others
from being scammed, turned to the newspaper for help.
Satisfaction guaranteed
At 301 Occidental Ave. S.,
Thesaurus Fine Arts sits on the corner of the block that is the axis
of
Seattle's fine-art scene. On the
first Thursday night of each month, the brick-paved, pedestrian-only
square is the place to see and be
seen. The gallery's neighbors include some of the city's most
respected purveyors: Foster/White.
Davidson. Grover/Thurston.
Entering Thesaurus one afternoon
last fall, a Times
reporter — giving his name but not
identifying himself
as a journalist — was greeted by
Crighton. The
reporter purchased two pieces that
were relatively
inexpensive: A ceramic teapot
purportedly from the
Tang Dynasty, for $1,900, and a
pottery tile from the
Ming Dynasty, for $315.
Both came with certificates of
authenticity from
scientific testing laboratories in
Hong Kong.
The teapot had dirt caked inside,
which Crighton said
came from centuries of being buried
underground.
She gave assurances that all of the
store's wares
were genuine, and where there was
any doubt they
were tested by independent
scientific labs.
Satisfaction, she said, was
guaranteed.
"Nice sale," Crighton said to the
reporter.
After buying the pieces, the
newspaper had them
evaluated by several local art
experts, all of whom said they were inauthentic. But to be sure, the
paper sent the pieces to be tested
by two of the world's leading laboratories for establishing the age
and authenticity of ceramics:
Oxford Authentication in England, the world leader, and Daybreak
Archaeometric Laboratory in
Connecticut, which has tested for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
National Gallery of Art and more
than 900 other clients.
Both use a scientific procedure
called thermoluminescence, or TL, testing. Similar to carbon dating,
TL tests the age of ceramics and
pottery by measuring the radiation absorbed since the last
high-temperature firing.
"As soon as I saw them, I saw they
were fake," said Doreen Stoneham, founder of Oxford
Authentication. Her test showed the
Thesaurus objects — certified by the gallery as being at least
1,200 years old for the teapot and
400-600 years old for the tile — were certainly less than 100
years old and possibly new.
Victor Bortolot, director of
Daybreak Laboratory, went even further: "I would say they are less
than 5
years old, probably much less," he
said.
Bortolot actually took samples from
the same holes on the bottom of the objects bored by the Hong
Kong labs that had vouched for
their antiquity. Those labs also claimed to have performed TL
testing on the pieces.
John Fairman, a highly regarded
dealer who has sold
Chinese art at Honeychurch Antiques
in Seattle and
Hong Kong for a quarter-century,
said the tile
appeared to be "something you'd
pick up there (in
Hong Kong) for $10 or $15." Of the
teapot, he said:
"This is the kind of thing, had it
been real, you'd sell
very quickly at Sotheby's or
Christie's for $20,000,
$30,000, something like that."
New testing certificates in hand,
the Times reporter
took the objects back to Thesaurus
in December and
got a quick refund from Crighton.
"It's an embarrassment to me, and
I'd like to give them
to the supplier," she said at the
time. "I'm sorry. I'm
glad I'm quitting in July."
When The Times attempted to buy
other pieces from
the store to have them tested,
Crighton refused to sell
them.
Weeks later, Thesaurus was selling
four other painted tiles nearly identical to the "Ming" tile the
newspaper had bought for $315.
Crighton confirmed they were from the same group of tiles. Now
they were marked "Han" and priced
at $900.
In a few weeks, they'd aged more
than 1,000 years and were almost three times as expensive.
Crighton said a shopper must have
placed the "Han" sign by mistake. She removed it. Then she
was asked about the price tags on
the edge of the tiles, which said "Han $900" in her handwriting.
"Oh," Crighton said, pausing. "I
just do what they tell me to do."
The Nobel candidate
Just who "they" are is difficult to
ascertain. Company papers list employees as officers. Crighton
says three married couples own
Thesaurus; she would identify only the two people for whom she
says she works under contract:
Linda and Steven Cheung.
"Linda and Steve pay my salary,"
she said.
Steven Ng Sheong Cheung, 67, is a
wealthy Hong
Kong-born U.S. citizen with homes
in Seattle, Hong
Kong and Shanghai. He is famous in
East Asia for his
economics research, his books and
his newspaper
columns, and he has been Nobel
laureate Milton
Friedman's traveling companion on
Friedman's trips to
China and Hong Kong. Cheung himself
has been a
candidate for the Nobel in
economics, finishing in the
top 25 in the 2001 balloting.
He also has had a long-running
dispute with the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service, and he
acknowledges that
he is under federal investigation
for alleged tax
evasion. "I've done nothing wrong,"
he said.
Cheung says he developed an
interest in antiques
from his economics study of the
effect of information
on pricing in volatile markets.
Although he confirms
that he acts as an "advisor" to
Thesaurus Fine Arts,
he denies he is an owner or that he
pays Crighton. He
would not say whether his family
owns it, saying
ownership needs to be kept secret
because of
security concerns.
Many factors point to Cheung's
active participation in
the business:
• Crighton, listed in state papers
as the company
president, said "the principal
owner" is an "Asian
professor" who owns homes in Hong
Kong and
Seattle and whose daughter was
getting married that
evening in Seattle. The description
fit Cheung
precisely; that night, his daughter
was married at St.
James Cathedral and had a reception
at SAM.
• Crighton, a former interior
designer, says the Seattle law firm of Stafford Frey Cooper referred
her
to Cheung, who needed a store
manager.
• A woman named Linda Su — Cheung's
wife's name before marriage — is listed as administrator of
www.thesaurusfinearts.com, the
company's Web site.
• State documents list Arthur Circo
of Mill Creek as chairman of the board. Circo, 64, says he is a
real-estate broker for Cheung and
not involved in the day-to-day operations of the gallery or Web
site. Circo's business, Commercial
Management and Leasing, is in a Mill Creek building owned by
West Coast Land Investments, a
corporation set up in 1981 with Cheung, his wife and his two
children as officers. Asked about
his connection to West Coast and Cheung's role in Thesaurus,
Circo declined comment.
• Po Lau Leung, a City University
of Hong Kong physicist who has tested antiques for Thesaurus,
says Cheung or Cheung's assistant
personally brought him all of those items — including the
ceramic teapot purchased by The
Times. Additionally, Leung says, Cheung bought his own testing
equipment and set up another Hong
Kong lab, called Adsigno Thermoluminescence Laboratory.
Adsigno was the lab that provided
the authentication for the tile The Times bought.
Cheung denies owning Adsigno —
Latin for "to
ascribe" — but won't say who does.
He admits helping
to set up the business and says the
actual owners
bought the equipment through him.
Papers filed in Hong Kong show the
owner of Adsigno
as Arcadia International Ltd. of
the British Virgin
Islands and Arcadia Press, a Hong
Kong company
that has published some of Cheung's
books. Adsigno
doesn't have offices where it says
it does, and doesn't
return phone calls.
• The supplier of the testing
equipment used by
Adsigno says he sold it to Cheung
for about $60,000.
Back in Seattle, visitors to
Thesaurus find a loose-leaf
notebook at the front desk with
documents extolling
the company and identifying Cheung
as "Advisor."
In that document, Cheung writes,
"Having examined
so many tested articles over the
years, I am perhaps
the best man on earth judging
whether an article will
pass the TL test with naked eyes."
Stoneham, the Oxford Authentication
founder,
remarked in response: "My reactions
to the reports
and the puffed-up statement from
the dealer are
unprintable!"
Earlier this month, Cheung said he
had had the two
pieces returned by The Times
retested in the two
Hong Kong labs.
Now they test "shiny new," he said.
"How come is it possible?"
Cheung insisted they were antiques,
not new, and that The Times or the mailing service must have
re-fired the ceramics, which could
alter the TL reading.
"Somebody did that to frame
Thesaurus," Cheung said. "This is fraud to do that. This is a crime."
Stoneham of Oxford Authentication
said her test would have detected any tampering, and there
was none.
eBay sales abound
On the world's largest
Internet-auction site, eBay, Thesaurus Fine Arts offers to test items
at a lab of
its choosing for a $250 fee.
Thesaurus lists hundreds of items a
year on eBay. With rolling weekly auctions, some items appear
time after time.
Yesterday, Thesaurus listed 18
items with minimum bids totaling $24,140. Auctions for five of the
ceramic items claimed to have TL
dating certificates. Auctions for two items priced at $120 and $200
say, "As the price is so low, it is
not worthy to make the TL test." And an "excellent" green Qingbai
Plate of the Qing Dynasty
(1644-1911) "is too thin to be TL tested."
The most expensive items, jade and
bronze, can't be
authenticated by TL tests. For
these, Thesaurus
writes, "the dating is assessed by
at least two of our
expert advisors." Those "expert
advisors" are not
identified. Experts consulted by
The Times — a former
museum curator and five reputable
dealers in Seattle
and Hong Kong — said most of the
items are at best
dubious and probably fake.
A bronze mirror identified as being
from the Tang
Dynasty and listed for a $4,200
minimum bid was
"highly suspect," said Stevenson,
the former SAM
curator. A Tang Dynasty jade Buddha
head, with a
starting bid of $3,800, was
"patently wrong,"
Stevenson said.
The Internet auction site provides
an area for
feedback from buyers and sellers,
and the comments
about Thesaurus are overwhelmingly
positive. eBay
buyers have posted 162 positive
comments from 89
different log-ins since September
1999; there are two
neutral comments and one negative.
However, as eBay itself points out,
there is no way to
validate that the feedback does not
come from people
with an interest in helping or
hurting a vendor.
Examples of the positive feedback:
"Now the BEST in
my Chinese collection." "Another
great object from a
great dealer." "Absolutely
breathtaking object, expert
delivery and service. Thank you,
TFA!!"
The lone negative comment came from
William Klebous of Australia: "FAKE, seller does not respond
to evidence or eBay mediator, write
me for details."
Thesaurus responds on the site:
"Non-sense! The Hongshan jade is authentic."
Klebous said he bought two
"Neolithic Hongshan" (3600-2000 B.C.) erotic jades from Thesaurus on
eBay in December 2000 and January
2001. He said he showed the first one to a dealer, who
pointed out modern tool markings
and an artificial patina.
Klebous complained to Thesaurus.
After a long wait, Klebous said, he got this response:
"My name is Steve; I am Thesaurus'
expert advisor. I am very familiar of the Hongshan Jade
sculpture you have purchased, and
in my opinion there is no chance it is not authentic. Quite a few
people may feel the price is too
low to be authentic, but these people know nothing about the new
finds. Refer your skeptical friends
to me, so I may explain to them."
That set off alarms for Klebous. It
didn't answer specific concerns. He consulted books and other
experts, who concluded the figures
could not possibly be genuine.
He again wrote Thesaurus. Three
weeks later, he got a note back from "Steve of Thesaurus":
"There is zero chance the Hongshan
jade figures you purchased from Thesaurus are not authentic.
No way they could be replicated.
They were excavated in province of Shantung. I know about this
as a matter of fact."
Klebous then turned to his
credit-card company and to eBay. He eventually got a refund.
Kevin Pursglove, a spokesman for
eBay, said the auction company requires "some pretty
substantial information" before it
can act against dealers for selling fakes.
Experts say that even if it
provides the occasional refund, Thesaurus can make money because of
the huge markup on objects that
aren't returned. Most buyers don't bother to have their purchases
tested, especially if they pay just
a few thousand dollars, because the TL tests cost as much as
$500.
Byron McMahon, a North Carolina
collector, bought a glazed boar from Thesaurus at the Seattle
store and a pot on eBay.
"The shop fooled me," he said.
"Normally, if they're in a nice place like that, they can't sell
(fakes)
long because they go out of
business. Something's wrong there in Seattle."
McMahon had the pot tested by
Daybreak Laboratory. The test showed it was new. McMahon
asked to return the items, but
Thesaurus told him too much time had passed since his purchase.
"They know exactly what they are
doing," McMahon said. "I don't think they know anything but what
a fake is."
Duff Wilson: 206-464-2288 or
dwi...@seattletimes.com. Sheila Farr: 206-464-2270 or
sf...@seattletimes.com.
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times
Company
Fred A. Murphy
On 26-Jan-2003, fritz_...@hotmail.com (FritzMagnum) wrote:
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134622162_phony260.html
if you *must* quote a copyrighted article in its entirety, could you please
at least run it through a cleaner first, so it doesn't read like 700 lines
of fortune cookies?
--
``Behind every successful organization stands one person who knows the
secret
of how to keep the managers away from anything truly important.''
Duff
special web site now,
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/links/chinese_art/ with,
among other things, a link to eBay auctions currently running by
Thesaurus Fine Arts.
I'd like to hear from anyone with further thoughts or perspectives on
this situation. Please reply to me by email to
dwi...@seattletimes.com
Thanks,
Duff Wilson
Staff Reporter
Seattle Times
phone: 206.464.2288
email: dwi...@seattletimes.com
Fred A. Murphy
On 27-Jan-2003, du...@duff.seanet.com (Duff) wrote:
> I'd like to hear from anyone with further thoughts or perspectives on
> this situation. Please reply to me by email to
Do a deja.com search on the $16,000 platinum bar which was probably silver.
It was discussed in rec.collecting.coins, and eventually made the WSJ. The
seller was an Asian with private auctions, who was still operating several
months later. He may have changed his ID since then. It's even possible
that this is the same person with a different email address.
Private auctions are an ideal way to hide dishonesty. If you're selling an
obvious fake, there is no way for anyone to contact the bidders to even warn
them. Of course, feedback looks good, because people don't find out about
the fake until it is too late.
PyroManiac
_____________________________________________________________________
Actually that seller of the platinum bar is not thesaurusfineart. That
seller is located in Bali, Indonesia. Yes, the username was changed but
he is still on eBay selling his wares for often 4 figure prices to what
I would call "stupid buyers" as the auction has all the hallmarks of a
scam... and it's being going on for some time.
As for thesaurusfinearts, it's also being going on a long time and is
one of the most infamous of fake sellers on eBay. Just go to any asian
art forum and any knowledgable collector will tell you. eBay knows as
well as numerous complaints have been filed against them as well as eBay
but both of them are still selling their items. eBay just gives you
their standard reply as being only a forum etc...Unfortunately these are
only 2 sellers of fake antique items, there are a ton more out there is
ever antique and collecting catagory. Buyer beware.. unless you know
what you are doing!