by Joseph K. Levene & Robert Grunder
Buying Fine Art on eBay, or more importantly, determining whether an eBay seller is really offering authentic Fine Art worthy of purchase is never easy. As is widely known, eBay takes zero position regarding quality, authenticity, accuracy, condition, etc., of the art listings posted.
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| Fine Art OR Fake Art? |
eBay assumes this stance because they state they don't sell anything as "eBay never take possession of goods sold through eBay." Although eBay brings buyers and sellers together, eBay takes no responsibility as to whether counterfeits or fakes are offered for sale.
Too often, the eBay art buyer is seduced into buying Fine Art that is actually Fake Art.
The Tiffany vs. eBay lawsuit underscores this point since the majority of eBay listings offering Tiffany goods are actually counterfeit, and Tiffany is now pressing eBay to clean up its act and do something about it. Let's hope the judge rules in Tiffany's favor as that will be a huge cue to Meg Whitman to start hiring personnel who actually monitor the site without double-talk.
As many know, many eBay art sellers don't provide full disclosure of the respective works being offered, which often makes the Lot seem more appealing than it would be after first hand inspection.
Examples include Sellers who won't/don't include a jog of the artist's signature, especially if they know the lot isn't genuine. Others neglect the art's measurements, or worse, don’t include an actual jog of the Work being offered for sale.
Many eBay sellers even state that their lot is accompanied with a certificate of authenticity, otherwise known as a "COA". Buyers need to be certain the COA doesn't camouflage the reality that you are really buying “Fake Art”, and that there was no "deal" after all.
In the end, the eBay Fine Art Seller that you thought is offering "Fine Art", is often selling “Fake Art", and eBay has no policy to immediately protect buyers and removes fraudulent sellers, even after repeated paypal and/or eBay complaints and obvious breaches that most would immediately discern.
Before you buy art online, and in particular, eBay, take time to carefully review all of a sellers listings. Check to see if there is a similarity and take time to view all recently sold lots from that seller.
View the lots; read the descriptions and ask yourself these questions:
- Does the seller have a legitimate business?
- Does the seller have a website that provides real information?
- Does the seller have an address/a phone number?
- Does the seller answer emails on a timely basis and address the questions asked?
- How long has the seller been established?
- Does it make sense for a fine art seller to be offer a work worth $1,000 for $100?
There is one eBay art seller who routinely ust takes color reproductions from Andy Warhol Books and then states the purported Art is "hand-signed" with an "Andy Warhol signature". Curiously, this seller keeps changing his eBay name and location, yet he also keeps conning art buyers into buying worthless "Fake Art".
This same eBay seller then goes on to state that his respective Andy Warhol works are from a "Private Collection, VIP who has died", or the signature was obtained in person by Warhol at unnamed gallery.
Why would Andy Warhol have signed so many Andy Warhol reproductions?
This same eBay seller states that their alleged Andy Warhol works are sold with a "Certificate of Authenticity from our gallery" as further assurance. And this same seller then lists a dozen other "so called Warhol" works all with the same "Private Collection, VIP - Signed Art book Collection" statement.
Because of the low price, many eBay buyers are seduced to bid on this Seller's eBay lots, and reject an authentic Andy Warhol because it cannot be sold at a similar unrealistic low price.
The COA is not only worthless, but because that seller is located in Switzerland, the COA is not even legally binding in the United States.
In the case of authentication of Works created by Andy Warhol, there is only one respected authority that can officially determine whether a work is or is not "in their opinion" a work created by Andy Warhol, the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc.
Unfortunately, the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc., no longer accepts works for Authentication, although it has already authenticated and rejected thousands of works of art as works created by Andy Warhol.
So even you have a Work of Art that comes with an eBay Seller COA, if the Andy Warhol Foundation states that in "their opinion the Work that you submitted is not a Work by Andy Warhol", your COA will be worth nothing as no seller's COA will have the power to override the Foundation's opinion.
It is time to force eBay to better review its art listings to ensure that its fine art listings are not filled with obvious fakes. Should you see a pattern of something that looks suspicious, contact eBay; send eBay an e-mail, and if they do nothing, send another.
At some point, eBay start monitoring their site more closely as it would be better for all those eBay sellers who care to sell legitimate items, and help protect buyers. One of the reasons that so many the overall average price of lots sold on eBay continues to fall, is more and more buyers are abandoning eBay as a reliable source for quality art.
Bottom-line, most of those so called Picasso listings you see on eBay are from sellers offering counterfeits; ditto many of those 60's Lichtensteins; and add for good measure those Matisse listings and the Degas listings too.
Recently we have noticed "some so called prominent internet sellers" claiming to offer "Keith Haring Subway drawings that are accompanied with an authenticity certificate. These sellers don't acknowledge the alleged authenticity certificate is not issued by the Estate of Keith Haring, the only Internationally accepted source to authenticate purported art by Keith Haring.
The fact is the Estate of Keith Haring NEVER authenticated Keith Haring Subway drawings.
Our advice is to boycott art sellers who falsely state a Keith Haring Subway drawing is accompanied with an Authenticity certificate, as the only thing authentic is outright fraud, indicating that seller is neither professional nor honest.
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| You Never Want To Buy Fake Art |
The only thing in common is that some eBay Sellers knows how to create a good con.
All Fine Art offered and sold by Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. is GUARANTEED for Authenticity.
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