Tuesday 7 September 2010

The Medici Dossier, Auction Houses and Due Diligence

Earlier this year two auction-houses offered objects that appeared to feature in the Medici Dossier (and in one case the Schinoussa Archive). In one case the auction-house decided to withdraw the lots. In the second case, the company pressed ahead with the sale, ignoring the high profile bad publicity in the Wall Street Journal (and in spite of having three items seized on its premises in 2009).

Can we presume that the auction-houses have adopted more rigorous due diligence procedures to avoid the repeat of previous sales?

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1 comment:

Dorothy King said...

*&%* - for some reason I thought Christie's had withdrawn the Medici lots. I can't believe that after this they would have gone ahead with the sale. Or that they won't say who consigned the earrings returned to Iraq. Peter Watson concentrated on Sotheby's in his books, but Christie's are just as bad - maybe worse to be continuing.

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