Non-sport : eBay glass art counterfeiter arrested

[BigJJ]

I'm cracking up. Imagine if the guy hanging from the rope was interviewed for a "curator" position with the museum. And then he gets the job, and is told to get up there. (I know it's likely someone from the Chihuly Studio doing the cleaning, the image struck me as funny.)

I had two Chihuly paintings, which I sold. Great color and size. The paintings, which are representative of flowing glass, are done entirely by Chihuly. And they are less likely to break. My favorite though are the large installations, of chandeliers, and of floats on water. Number of fake Chihulys out there and also a number of remnants (pieces created by the Studio and discarded or taken) and broken remnants, that are offered as a finished and actual piece of art as intended by Chihuly. Just need to do a little homework if buying his work on the secondary market.

Not to exonerate the convicted party here, but it seems this fraudster was buying trinkets on ebay, then reselling them on ebay after engraving Chihuly's sig & forging certs.... isn't there some culpability on the part of ebay? Ebay allowed this to go on for more than a year after being notified of the fraud by Chihuly studios.

For example, the article indicates he sold some of his forgeries through a Renton auction house. What if he bought the items at the Renton auction house, then engraved them, and resold them at the same auction house. I think any reasonable person would say that is beyond unethical, and borders on criminal activity on the part of the auction house as well as the forger.

[drcy]

Perhaps of further O/T interest (nothing to do with forgery), my sister's boyfriend is a glass artist who worked for Chihuly doing the etching and finishing. He's the guy, Paul L., pictured and named in the article. I visited his workshop a couple of weekends ago, and it must have $200,000 worth of equipment-- specialty saws, lathes, giant belt machines, kilns et al. He's an interesting guy. He was an ER physician and also a physician for Tibet mountain climbing expeditions and on a leprosy colony, then quit medicine to get his MFA and become a glass artist. Must be one of the few people with an MD and an MFA. If I have questions about medicine or glass, I go to him.

http://seattletimes.com/html/localne...rtists13m.html

[mybestbretts]

What a great story. I have never been a great fan but enjoy seeing his work.
Have been to the exhibit in St. Petersburg, fl.

[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by pariah1107

Not to exonerate the convicted party here, but it seems this fraudster was buying trinkets on ebay, then reselling them on ebay after engraving Chihuly's sig & forging certs.... isn't there some culpability on the part of ebay? Ebay allowed this to go on for more than a year after being notified of the fraud by Chihuly studios.

For example, the article indicates he sold some of his forgeries through a Renton auction house. What if he bought the items at the Renton auction house, then engraved them, and resold them at the same auction house. I think any reasonable person would say that is beyond unethical, and borders on criminal activity on the part of the auction house as well as the forger.

A story worth mentioning due to some relevance to the above:

I reported this to LE but nothing happened:

A few years ago a blank Babe Ruth Foundation check appeared on ebay.
It was bought by someone I knew and who was a probable forger.
A month later, guess what, the check appeared on ebay again, only this time it was filled out and of course had a forged Babe Ruth signature on it. (the check number was identical to the blank one that had appeared one month earlier). I had printed copies of the blank and the newly filled out check.
This one piece was only the tip of the iceberg for this person and I told LE that. But nothing happened in this instance.