Collector wins £1.9m urns case

[emad]

BBC News snip

An art collector has won her High Court battle over the authenticity of the two antique vases.

Taylor Thomson, 41, daughter of Lord Thomson of Fleet had sued auction house Christie's over the two ornate urns.

She bought them for £1.9m at auction as part of a sale in December 1994 from the Marquess of Cholmondeley's Norfolk seat, Houghton Hall.

Ms Thomson claimed they were inferior 19th Century imitations and wanted her money back with interest.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/3727623.stm

[Beaker]

1. it's nice to know that there are still people in the world...

who are able to afford the simpler pleasures of life.

[SoulDiva]

2. irresponsible

I think that if I were about to spend over a million dollars on ANYTHING I would have it checked out first. Why did she not bring in an appraiser or 2 or 3. I want my stuff in writing 100% certified.

[emad]

3. Both Sotheby's and Christies auctioneers have been busted

in the last five years for running price fixing cartels and anti-competitive business practises, including selling stuff that they knew might be fakes/copies/unattributable counterfiet stuff. Albert Taubmann jailed for over 1 year for his scams.

[bleedingheart]

4. agree...if she was an experienced collector of these types of items

she should have known there might be a risk...but alas if you have more money than brains then you can always sue..

The ruling in the case is mixed as well....there is a chance that the vases are authentic but she wins anyways???

[spinbaby]

5. I don't get it

The judge said that the urns probably were genuine 18th-century but that Christie's should have informed the customer that 19th-century reproductions were common.

[Bridget Burke]

6. Poor little thing.....

Her dad might be a lord, but he's the son of a Canadian barber. Through hard work he attained a media empire, a great fortune & a title.

But that's not enough. His daughter needs to buy gilt-encrusted monstrosities from a great house for that aristocratic touch. Not knowledgeable enough to be a collector, she's apparently never even watched Antiques Roadshow.