Quote:
Originally Posted by cgjackson222
Very interesting:
"The Atlanta Braves remain deeply concerned with Heritage’s lack of diligence and complete failure to authenticate the Disputed Items," the letter said. "We are conducting an investigation into the authenticity of the remaining Disputed Items and into how Heritage and any other party came into possession of them. If any of the Disputed Items are found to have been acquired illegally, they are the rightful property of the Atlanta Braves and should be returned to the Atlanta Braves immediately.
"And if any of the Disputed Items are found to be inauthentic, Heritage’s sale of the fraudulent items would negatively impact the value of the actual items, causing irreparable harm to the Atlanta Braves by potentially diminishing the financial and historic value of the sports memorabilia at issue."
Strong words. Not a good look for Heritage if any of the Braves' claims turn out to be true.
|
I think Heritage just needs to bite the bullet on this one and take the loss, whatever it may be.
Will do more harm to them if they follow through with the auction.
Not sure they should just hand them over to the Braves either, as they are just a consignee and not the owner of the items in question either. Have the Braves deal directly with the consignor and not Heritage.
Also, if these are actually legit, is it entirely possible, all of these items would have been lost to time if the groundskeeper in question didn't bag up all these items and curate them for the last 50 years?
This is 1974 we're talking about. There was no known collectible market for bases at the time that I'm aware of. Teams weren't pulling every piece of memorabilia they could think of to sell on the secondary market, or even to put it in the stadium museum.
Braves want them NOW...but did they want them in 1974?
Also, Braves don't seem to be sure if they are "real" or "inauthentic"...but they want them "returned" to them either way. Do the Braves claim to have the "real" bases or not?
So many questions.....so much I don't know and never will.