GREAT ANTIQUES SCAM OF 1997
Baseball players visualize themselves hitting a game winning home-run in the World Series. Chess enthusiasts fantasize about beating Kasparov. Novelists dream of writing the next Moby Dick or Lord Of The Rings. Throughout America, auction houses and antique shops are percolated by men and woman with their own dreams. They wish to handle a masterpiece. It's more than the money. Possessing and dealing in historically important antiques gives one satisfaction. For the owners of Tacoma, Washington's Sanford & Son Auctions, Alan and Cheryl Gorsuch, their dream of a lifetime would turn into their worst nightmare.
It began this past spring with an April 5th visit from a retired chemist named Donald Flynn. Flynn claimed to be acting as an agent for a Canadian family who wished to sell, what Alan and Cheryl concluded, would be one of the most important small collections of American antiques ever brought to market. It would put their 25 year old auction house on the national map!
Flynn told the Gorsuchs he chose Sanford & Son because he wished to avoid dealer "games & pooling" in NYC and that great pieces will sell well anywhere. He claimed 40 years experience in fine early furniture. He stated that, "He knew all the major dealers on the east coast." Donald Flynn said that he would handle the insurance and the advertising for the sale.
Flynn's business prospectus described the pieces: "1 Newport kneehole desk with 4 carved shells and label of John Townsend. (1760) 2. Drop leaf table with label of John Townsend. 3. Oil Portrait of Dr. Thomas Moffatt, original owner of above 2 pieces of furniture."
Flynn prepared a history of Moffatt. He was described as a Newport, Rhode Island, Tory-Loyalist. "In 1765 his is house was burned to the ground by the Yankees," the prospectus read. "He and family, and above heirlooms, sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The items have been handed down to the first born for 230 years."
John Townsend, and his associates, are amongst the most important cabinetmakers in American history. An unlabeled desk similar to the one Flynn described brought 3.6 million dollars at auction in 1996. This lot would bring much more because it had additional factors in its favor. It was blessed with a rare original cabinetmakers "label." It had a long-standing family history, or "provenance." And, it had remained as an "intact collection." This was more than just a group of antiques. It was a discover which would teach us more about American history. It was a collection of antiques to measure all others against because of its undeniable integrity. That is, if this wasn't just some kind of cruel scam.
Sadly, it was. The ads Flynn ran in the trade papers were deceptive. Proper time was not allowed for "inspection." The table had a questionable top. The painting was "relined" and its sitter could not be identified as being Moffatt. In fact, the whole Moffatt provenance and story about Canadian owners seems to have been concocted. The desk turned out to be a fake. The important John Townsend labels were but cheap Xerox copies.
Several weeks ago, on sale day, in a near empty room in Tacoma WA, auctioneer Alan Gorsuch set a can of gasoline on the blockfront kneehold desk and had his runners bring it outside. Alan and Cheryl's dream will visit them on another day. He implored the consignor, Mr. Donald Flynn to set rid the world of "the most arrogant counterfeit endeavor in the history of American antiques." Flynn did not.
If you ever happen upon a 70 year old ex-chemist who has a mahogany desk for which he's accepting bids, bid him only good-day.
Write to
Wayne Mattox
Like AntiqueTalk?
Recommend it to a friend!
Copyright © 1995 - 2006 Wayne Mattox
Home | Columns | On-Line Auctions | Our Shop | Appraisals
Events and Lectures | Wayne Mattox | Woodbury
