Buying and reselling antiques with a price difference of 28,000 times, is the dealer a scam?

A lawsuit in the city of Nimes, France, is attracting a lot of attention. The plaintiffs are an elderly couple, aged 81 and 88, who decided to clean out their house in 2021 and sell some antiques and artwork. An art dealer was invited to view the items the elderly couple wanted to sell.

This person was interested in a mask of African origin. He offered to buy the mask for 150 euros (approximately 3.9 million VND), and then secretly resold it for... nearly 4.2 million euros (approximately 109 billion VND). The difference between the purchase price and the selling price was... 28,000 times.

The mask, which originated in Africa, is the focus of the lawsuit (Photo: Daily Mail).

The elderly couple only learned the true value of the mask after reading about an auction taking place in Montpellier, France. The seller was an art dealer who bought the mask from the elderly couple. At this point, the true value of the mask became clearer.

This is a 19th-century handcrafted mask made from golden teak wood covered with a layer of white clay. The mask is an antique with significant cultural and artistic value. Masks of this type were previously commonly used in funeral rites, weddings, and community gatherings in Gabon, a Central African country.

Currently, in the world , there are only about a dozen ancient masks of this type left being kept in museums.

The mask had been in the elderly couple’s family for generations. A family member who had lived in Africa in the 19th century brought it back to France as a souvenir.

Over time, the family lost track of the mask until an art dealer offered to buy it for a bargain price, and they agreed to sell.

Currently, only about a dozen of these ancient masks are preserved in museums around the world (Photo: Daily Mail).

When they read an article about the mask being sold at an auction, they thought they had been "cheated". A lawsuit was filed by the couple. Immediately, the sale of the mask was stopped, to serve the legal activities that would take place.

According to the couple, the art dealer took advantage of their trust and confidence to defraud them, offering a price that was vastly different from the actual value of the item. Apparently, the dealer knew about the mask’s true value, but he did not tell the elderly couple.

After acquiring the mask, he didn't display it in his shop for sale, but instead quietly contacted auction houses in France to get estimates of its value. The auction houses quoted prices in the hundreds of thousands of euros, but when the item was actually auctioned, the price reached was even higher.

Upon learning that he would be sued, the art dealer offered to pay the elderly couple 300,000 euros, but the offer was rejected.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/van-hoa/mua-di-ban-lai-co-vat-gia-chenh-lech-28000-lan-nha-buon-co-lua-dao-20231011152540053.htm