Thread: how does a major auction house sell a forgery?

This is just one of the many fascinating questions in @writersdesks' The Poet and the Murderer. It’s a page turner - I’m summarizing it in a way that does not do the story justice at all, so read it! https://www.amazon.com/Poet-Murderer-Story-Literary-Forgery/dp/0525945962

Notes: I'm going in chronological order. The book contains full identification of the people whose titles I am using here for ease of understanding. I will mark the lies with *

1985: Forger uses the leading Dickinson Expert’s publication on her manuscripts, which includes charts illustrating changes in her handwriting, to craft a forgery of a 1871 poem.

Forger composes the poem. It’s not very good, but that’s OK, because it’s supposedly from a period when she was ill and her creative powers were waning.

Forger offers Mark 1, who had purchased numerous (forged) manuscripts from him, the poem; Mark 1 declines to buy. Forger instead sells poem to a Vegas Dealer in historical manuscripts.

The poem doesn’t bring in enough cash to cover Forger’s growing debts. Attempting to escape them, Forger constructs pipe bombs and murders a creditor and an innocent bystander. He is arrested and his forging activities are discovered.

His forgeries quickly become notorious in the rare books and manuscripts world – few people will buy anything he’s touched, even though he also dealt in genuine manuscripts.

1994: Employee of Vegas Dealer faxes a copy of the poem to Dickinson Expert, who gives his view that its handwriting is right for 1871, but does not opine on its authenticity and refuses to allow Vegas Dealer to use his name while selling the poem.

Vegas Dealer refuses to tell Dickinson Expert where they got the poem* (by omission).

1996: Investor's estate consigns millions in historical manuscripts to Sotheby’s. Estate received title to these manuscripts in lieu of cash for Investor's stake in Vegas Dealer, but they, including the poem, have never left Vegas Dealer - a Sotheby’s employee picks them up there

May 1997: Sotheby’s catalog for upcoming June 1997 sale advertises the poem with no information about its ownership history* (by omission).

May 1997: Librarian reads the catalog and ponders buying the poem for the Amherst public library. He takes steps to test its authenticity: he compares its handwriting and paper type/watermark to known Dickinson writing from 1871 and calls Dickinson Expert.

Dickinson Expert says he's seen the poem and plans to include it in his new forthcoming edition of Dickinson’s complete poetry. Librarian, satisfies, solicits out special donations to purchase the poem.

May 1997: Dickinson Expert visits Sotheby’s showroom and examines poem under a magnifying glass. He sees nothing suspicious, but does not express any opinions to anyone.

May 1997: Mark 1 calls Sotheby’s Employee 1 (one of two employees who handled the sale; senior expert in manuscripts department and a VP) and tell him about Forger’s attempted sale of a Dickinson poem to him.

Mark 1 also says he saw the poem displayed in late 80s at one of Vegas Dealer’s showrooms. Sotheby’s Employee 1 tells Mark 1 that the poem has been “checked out” by Dickinson Expert.*

May 1997: Mark 1 calls Dickinson Expert, who explains that he “checked out” the poem by looking at it, but certainly did not authenticate it for Sotheby's.

June 1997: Librarian wins auction, purchasing poem for $21,000. He begins preparing a special exhibition to show off the poem to community/donors.

He wants to include info about its provenance in the exhibition, so asks for more details from Sotheby’s Employee 2 (who handled the sale with Sotheby’s Employee 1; also a senior expert in manuscripts department and a VP).

Sotheby’s Employee 2 tells Librarian she doesn’t know for sure,* but thinks the poem came from a collector who got it from a dealer in the Midwest.* (lie because Vegas is not the Midwest)

Mark 1 finds out from library publicity where the poem has gone and calls Librarian, telling him about Forger’s attempted sale to him of a Dickinson poem – and that he had told Sotheby’s Employee 1 this story before the sale.

For Librarian, as with anyone else knowledgeable about historical manuscripts, any association with Forger makes an item highly suspect. Librarian calls Dickinson Expert and they test the poem. They find nothing definitively suspicious about the manuscript itself.

But, in an appendix of a book written about Forger (who attracted much attention due to the murders), Librarian find a list of Forger’s confessed forgeries, which includes Dickinson (without specifying what of hers he forged).

Librarian calls Vegas Dealer, whose employee claims they got the poem from the estate of a now dead collector in California.*

Dickinson Expert (who is also a director of the Beinecke Library and thus one of Sotheby’s most important customers) calls Sotheby’s Employee 3 (head of manuscripts, on BoD), who insists poem was consigned by an individual with no connection, direct or indirect, w/ Vegas Dealer.*

Librarian calls Sotheby’s to say that probable connection of poem to Forger makes it Sotheby’s responsibility to prove poem’s authenticity. Sotheby’s Employee 1 says “10 to 15” manuscript experts had examined the poem (*? He didn’t name them, so this was valueless “information”).

Sotheby’s Employee 2 tells Librarian that famed manuscript Forgery Experts 1 and 2 had examined poem.*

Librarian contacts Forgery Expert 1, who says he had declined to authenticate the poem for Sotheby’s when they asked and indeed had never ended up seeing it at all.

Librarian calls Forgery Expert 2, who says Sotheby’s never asked her about the poem. She told Librarian the information she would have provided had they asked: Forger told a journalist in a 1990 interview that he had forged this particular poem.