Richard:
I know you can't disclose her name, but do you know the Auction House? Did she ever mention who it was? They carry a large portion of the responsibility here, and I would love to see them exposed.
While she was obviously naive, she was out of her element, and was simply a trusting soul, and a "non-collector". The auction house should definitely have known better and (for a ball of that value) obtained an LOA before it ever made the Catalogue.
The fact that the ball was not authentic would never have been an issue, had they done their due diligence up front. I am not even aware of an Auction House who would offer such a Ball without some sort of authentication.... do you?
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