In a message dated 4/4/2005 3:52:46 PM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
However, if an expert gives a seller advice "your collection is only worth $50'000 but I collect civil war stuff and would pay you a premium price of $80'000 because I'm really fanatic about civil war items" and it turns out that the real value was $800'000, thats clearly a fraud. --------------------------- That's exactly what happened with one of the roadshow's Civil War experts: "Ten months after a federal grand jury charged him with fraud, nationally known relic dealer Russ Pritchard III pleaded guilty Dec. 21 (2001) to a 21-count criminal indictment that detailed his repeated victimization of unsuspecting owners of Civil War artifacts. . . . The guilty findings for the father and confession by the son, plus earlier guilty pleas by their partner, George Juno, 40, close a chapter in a long-running saga that has gripped the Civil War community for nearly four years. The threesome, doing business as the American Ordnance Preservation Association (AOPA), gained prominence at the top of the Civil War militaria field as they procured millions of dollars in relics for Harrisburg's new National Civil War Museum, and two of them ? Pritchard III and Juno ? made regular appearances on the popular PBS television series "Antiques Roadshow." . . . In 1995-96, Pritchard III and AOPA "fraudulently" purchased from George Pickett V, great-great-grandson of Confederate Gen. George Pickett, his ancestor's kepi worn at Gettysburg, a bloody uniform sleeve, letters to his wife LaSalle and numerous other items, paying Pickett a false appraisal price of $87,500 and then promptly selling them to the City of Harrisburg for $880,000. Pritchard III "falsely represented himself" to Pickett as a purchasing agent for the museum, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Goldman, and "falsely stated that he was not receiving a profit from the purchase." Pritchard III also "borrowed" several unpublished Civil War photos from the Pickett collection but later returned copies of the images, keeping the originals. In July 1996 Pritchard III and Juno staged phony appraisals on two "Antiques Roadshow" programs, supplying friends with swords and providing them with fake stories about them, to which they pleaded guilty. In early 1997, descendants of Union Maj. Samuel Wilson who had watched the TV shows contacted AOPA for an appraisal of their ancestor's 1864 presentation sword. After offering a free appraisal, Pritchard III told the family the Harrisburg museum would put the sword on permanent display, bringing "national attention" to their ancestor. He appraised the general's sword for the family at $8,000. Juno then gave the sword to his father. AOPA's first check to the Wilson family bounced. When the family continued to press for proof that the museum had purchased the sword, Juno told them the museum had decided not to buy it and AOPA had sold it to a collector for $10,000. Pritchard III pleaded guilty to signing a false bill of sale in that amount. . . . In August 1997 Pritchard III contacted a descendant of Union Gen. George Meade asking to buy a presentation pistol given to Meade at a U.S. Sanitary Commission fair in 1864. Pritchard III "falsely represented himself" as the City of Harrisburg's purchasing agent and said he was buying the pistol for the museum, where it would be "reunited" with other Meade artifacts "and displayed in one exhibit for all time." Pritchard III appraised the pistol at $180,000 to $200,000. On Oct. 7, 1997, he received it from the Meade descendant. On Oct. 14 he and Juno resold it to a private collector in Illinois for $385,000. Two days later Pritchard III paid the descendant $184,115. On Oct. 17 Pritchard III faxed the mayor of Harrisburg a letter saying the Meade descendant would not sell the pistol. . . . . In September 1996 William Day, a descendant of Lt. Col. William Hunt, provided his ancestor's uniform to Pritchard III's father and partner in AOPA, Pritchard Jr., to authenticate. Pritchard Jr. delivered the uniform to his son, and they had newly made gold stars placed on the collar. When Day called in January 1997 to inquire about the uniform, the two Pritchards "falsely advised" him that it was not authentic and had been given away to Goodwill Industries. In April 1998 Pritchard III sold the Hunt uniform to a dealer in Georgia for $45,000. It was sold to another dealer for $51,500 and was sold again to the Tennessee State Museum for $67,500. . . ." And that's just a partial listing. Best regards, Rene Rondeau
