Fake Russian Colletibles

The NY Post has an interesting article about a NY dealer being sued by a Miami doctor over Russian antiques and collectibles with supposedly invented background stories. The dealers shop, once int he Essex House hotel is now closed. The article also notes a second collector is also suing the dealer.

The NY Post reports

A Florida doctor and his wife say a since shuttered antiques store in the historic Essex House hotel building sold them nearly $400,000 in fake Russian collectibles – including a silver spoon supposedly used by Russian Czars, a new lawsuit alleges.

Steven Tarkan, a doctor for the Miami Heat NBA basketball team, and his wife, Shirley, stumbled into RN Joseph Fine Art at 160 Central Park South in July of 2003.

The couple chatted with the owner, Ronald Safdieh, who won their trust by insisting he was an Orthodox Jew and touting his celebrity clients such as Michael Jackson, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

The Tarkans bought nine items totaling $130,350, including a Faberge egg with an enameled elephant design for nearly $30,000, the suits says.

Safdieh allegedly told them that the $2,600 Plique-A-Jour spoon and $33,600 Cloisonne enamel tea set they bought “were over 100 years old and had been used by Russian Czars,” court papers allege.

The couple returned to the upscale store across from Central Park in November 2004 and bought over a dozen Italian paintings, pieces of furniture and a $19,000 jade clock supposedly made by the House of Faberge, according to the suit.

The Russian jewelry firm is known for its ornate Faberge “eggs” often encrusted with jewels.

The antique peddler and the Tarkans became friends, the suit says, and Safdieh visited their home in Miami in 2005 and sold them an item that he described as “an original, authentic ‘Russian’ antique.”

The couple made a final trip to the ritzy shop later that year and blew over $100,000 on items they thought were made by early 20th-century jeweler Feodor Ruckert, late 19th-century designer Pavel Ovchinnikov and the House of Faberge, court papers state.

With each purchase, the Tarkans received a certificate of authenticity and a promise from Safdieh that, if requested, he would buy back anything he’d sold them at the sale price, the suit alleges.

But the couple realized that they’d been duped earlier this year after learning that Safdieh had been sued by two different customers for peddling fake Russian artifacts.

They contacted Safdieh and asked that he buy back the items but he refused, court papers charge.

They had their supposed six-figure trove appraised – and were told it was worth a measly $15,000.

The Tarkans are now suing Safdieh and his shop, which closed in 2009, for the $379,350 in fakes and another $2 million for pain and suffering.

But the couple will have to get in line, as Safdieh is fighting a $1.2 million suit from an Ohio man who claims he was bamboozled into buying a phony “gem-set Faberge egg” and other items.

A similar 2010 suit was dismissed after both sides failed to appear, according to court records.

Safdieh didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Source: The NY Post