Yes, the sound of silence is now deafening. As I posted on NSFGE on 10/3:
PiH may not want to return the poster to its owner, even though he/she still actually owns it. I presume consigning an item to PiH does not consign ownership? But demounting the poster and running the very real risk of either destroying it completely or erasing evidential material from it that might help determine who worked on the fake and at what stage in its "creation" by the person who declared it "authentic" is something that beggars belief. There should be as much public squawking about this as there has been about its discovery of being a fake. -----Original Message----- From: Bruce Hershenson [mailto:brucehershen...@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 05:51 AM To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Re: [MOPO] Losses and Leadership http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZGWQauQOAQ On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 12:41 AM, dsonesheets <dsoneshe...@gmail.com> wrote: Fuckin A right. Pardon my French, but when are people going to stop treating this as damage control issue while saying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what steps they're going to be taking to prevent this from happening again? I'm ready to drop off this list, because it seems no one besides JR has the balls to come out with what no one else is saying because they don't have the brains to understand what's going on in the first place. BTW, I received ONE whole response to my letter about my letter three years ago, and it was JR again. Pathetic. On Sunday, October 4, 2009, James Richard <jrl...@mediabearonline.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > Grey, > > Sure I'm reading between the lines... neither you or anyone else are > giving us much else to do but read between the lines right now. I > appreciate that you were one of the first people to realize there was > "something not right" about one of these high end fakes and have been > instrumental in advancing the investigation (and I have credited you > with that before). But don't yank our chain, OK? I didn't say Heritage > suffered a great financial loss, I said some "big players" have and > that insurance companies for operations like Heritage may have covered > some of those losses. Obviously I don't really know, because no one has > released specific details. But unless I have somehow missed it, you > have not categorically stated that none of the numerous now-known fakes > ever passed through Heritage's hands into those of collectors. > > If I'm wrong about that, please correct me in no uncertain terms, with > no mincing of words. Saying Heritage did not suffer a financial loss > (meaning your insurance covered it), is not the same thing as saying > Heritage never inadvertently sold any fake posters. > > Right now everyone involved is trying to keep the details and extent of > this scandal under wraps in the name of National Security... oops... I > mean because it might somehow compromise the investigation and hinder > the FBI in prosecuting the guilty parties... right :) > > There are all kinds of "loss" and customer confidence is a big one that > will affect all sellers. Rather than issuing placating statements like > those we would expect from a political figure, I would like to see > Heritage publicly taking the lead in coming up with industry-wide > proposals to address this issue in the future. > > And saying you will subject posters to close scrutiny is not what I > mean. After all, they were *always* subjected to close scrutiny before, > weren't they? And now we've seen that close scrutiny isn't enough. I > mean let us know how you and the rest of the poster-selling world are > going to do something besides carry on business as usual, leaving the > burden of determining true authenticity to the buyer after he has > forked over the big bucks. > > If Heritage is the > leader > in the business, then act like it. Let the public know exactly what you > intend to do about this problem going forward and how you intend to > enlist the support and cooperation of all the restorers and backers and > experts in a coordinated effort. > > -- JR > > Smith, Grey - 1367 wrote: > > Richard > > JR reads between the lines! His statement is untrue in regards to a loss to > Heritage due to fakes. > > > On Oct 2, 2009, at 9:24 AM, "Richard Evans" > <<mailto:evan...@blueyonder.co.uk>evan...@blueyonder.co.uk <javascript:_e({}, > 'cvml', 'evan...@blueyonder.co.uk');><mailto:evan...@blueyonder.co.uk>> wrote: > > JR, I believe you just outed Heritage. > > On 2 Oct 2009, at 07:35, James Richard wrote: > > > 3) Some of the Really Big Players got hurt this time. Heritage and other > auction houses/retailers had to refund a lot of money to customers who bought > fakes from them. Maybe they had insurance to help with the refunds, maybe > they didn't, but it still hurt them financially and also hurt their > reputations and customer confidence. They should now be willing to back the > formation of a guild to define restoration standards and practices and > *identification marks* of who did the work so it could be quickly checked on. > > They should also be willing to encourage genuine experts to examine their > very expensive items and provide "Opinions of Authenticity" to help restore > buyer confidence. Note that I call them "Opinions" of Authenticity because it > is getting harder for even long-time participants in this field to identify > the best of the fakes. After the John Davis fiasco, I doubt anyone would be > willing to sign their name on 100% Guarantee anymore, but a solid opinion > with specifics delineated would still be better than nothing, which is what > we have on most very expensive items right now. > > Grey is entitled to his opinion that there is no real problem in catching > fakes, but history has not borne that out in recent years and besides, the > public perception being what it is now, if Heritage expects to keep setting > those record prices they are simply going to have to offer the buyers > something more substantial in the way of authentication on high-end items > than they have in the past. > > Or maybe not. Maybe it will all go back to business-as-usual once again. In > which case we can all look forward to even bigger scandals in the future -- > and declining realized prices for genuine high-end and middle-tier authentic > movie posters. > > It is now in *everyone's* best interest to DO SOMETHING real and practical to > help insure nothing of this magnitude happens again. Just making reassuring > statements that the "sky is not falling" won't cut it. A 19% buyers premium > on a $30,000 poster sale is $5,700 bucks -- they should be willing to spend a > few hundred to properly authenticate it before offering it to the customers > they are asking to trust them. > > A money-back guarantee is a great thing. But what good does it do you if you > end up buying a fake and never find out about it? Or don't find out about it > for 10 or 20 years... or until your children go to sell it after you've > passed it on to them in your estate? > > -- JR > > > > > > > > > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at http://www.filmfan.com/ > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu > <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'lists...@listserv.american.edu');> > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > -- Steve Zammar dsoneshe...@gmail.com owner, ds|onesheets 303/478-3973 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at http://www.filmfan.com/ ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com___________________________________________________________________How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing ListSend a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.eduin the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-LThe author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
