Deplorable behaviour by Antiquorum

[PJ S]

http://www.watchprosite.com/?page=wf...8&pzt=&dv=true

http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...-by-Antiquorum

[BlackBay1]

Title of the thread says it all, thanks for sharing.

[Watchflair]

Well that's just terrible. What was the point of them asking for all the documentation if they just simply did not want to be involved.

[swils8610]

Awful. I hope the proper owner hires a lawyer and goes after the auction house.

[Knappo 1307]

Not good..

[TheRolexKingofLV]

Wow...shady to say the least. Dont these auction houses do any research regarding the pieces they take in on consignment...if they would have just googled the piece and serial number, all of this could have been avoided. if they were a "reputable" auction house, they would have notified you of there findings immediatly, and notified the authorities as well, that someone just brought in a stolen watch to be auctioned.

[TheBluePrince]

Complete scum company. They also have a history of not paying the buyers money to sellers once they have it.

[wantonebad]

Really horrible story, depressing actually.

[Etschell]

22 watches stolen wow. makes me realize getting a safe or safe deposit box is very important.

[brandrea]

In a word, UGH

[PJ S]

As posted in the TZ-UK thread, the buyer, who did proper due diligence, has given his side of things.

http://www.watchprosite.com/?page=wf...8&pzt=&dv=true

At this juncture, it’s nigh on impossible to believe Antiquorum did not know this watch wasn’t reported stolen.
It’s easy to suspect they presumed that, after 4 odd years later, the rightful owner had given up any hope of recovering it, so no-one would be any the wiser – except they weren’t banking on the buyer being diligent, and this has panicked them to hand it back in an effort to wash their hands of the issue.

I have no doubt that in a court, any decent judge worthy of the robe they wear, would find Antiquorum wholly negligent, irrespective of their T&C policy, after having been given the proof of ownership and crime reference documents, and the watch was no longer theirs to shunt off anywhere except the local law enforcement agency.

[hsfrank]

Actually, I have seen here in the forum a similar situation by Rolex. They however turned the watch over to the police. I can not say whether the auction house was legally correct but they probably did what was best for them to avoid getting involved. Here in the states , the owner can with great difficulty ( by instituting an action of replevin) recover his goods, One can only convey as much good title as they possess. Since a thief has no good title he can not convey good title to any purchaser, Since the purchaser can not have good title they can not convey good title to anyone. And so on! However I am not a lawyer so take this with a grain of salt. And I have no knowledge of Chinese law. All that being said I feel the pain.

[Jocke]

This story stinks and if auction houses act like this they are just criminals as the thieves. Nicholas have boxes and all the papers that
shows the watch belongs to him and if that not is proof enough I don't know what they expect he will show them.

[Etschell]

and then there is this:

http://www.freewebs.com/swissmovemen...e%20Owners.pdf

A state appeals panel has ordered a New York attorney to turn over $3.4 million in proceeds from the 2006 sale of an international watch auction house to its original owners, including renowned watch expert Osvaldo Patrizzi, who claims he was tricked into giving up his shares in the auction house.

Not sure I would want to do business with a company like this.

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by Watchflair

Well that's just terrible. What was the point of them asking for all the documentation if they just simply did not want to be involved.

So they could use it to cancel the deal with the seller, I guess.

[locutus49]

Yikes.

[andromeda160]

Pretty crazy, I hope the owner gets all his watches back. Strange he didn't turn them into insurance

[Wesley Crusher]

Disgusting. I hope the auction house goes down in flames.

[mtrunner]

Unreal. It's beyond disgusting that the Auction house returned the watch to the cosigner. I would most definitely hire a lawyer and go after the auction house.

[PJ S]

I believe the original owner (Nico) is a lawyer, and Greg, he didn’t have them insured.

[GB-man]

Deplorable.

I'm guessing they contacted thier in house counsel and they advised to return it to the consignor and get out of the way.

Sad they didn't man up and hold the watch while authorities sorted it.

[Hpozzuoli]

The buyer should have just held the watch instead of returning it to the auction house. Both the buyer and the poor sole who had it stolen from him lost all their leverage giving it back.

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by Hpozzuoli

The buyer should have just held the watch instead of returning it to the auction house. Both the buyer and the poor sole who had it stolen from him lost all their leverage giving it back.

Can't blame the buyer for returning the watch. I would have. Anyway, he probably assumed Antiquorum had some integrity.

[bdex75]

It will be pretty hard for such a limited piece to just disappear. I would hope that if the authorities are involved they will want the auction house to give up the info of the consignor. But with it being an international deal I imagine all bets with cooperation of the authorities are off.

Especially after watching Tom's struggle to get his Daytona back in Japan.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[WRwatchATL]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

Can't blame the buyer for returning the watch. I would have. Anyway, he probably assumed Antiquorum had some integrity.

You would think Antiquorum would have taken a different course of action other than returning the watch to the consignor, I'm failing to see how that benefits them...

[Etschell]

Originally Posted by WRwatchATL

You would think Antiquorum would have taken a different course of action other than returning the watch to the consignor, I'm failing to see how that benefits them...

probably because their agreement is written in this way:

consignor represents watch is rightfully owned by consignor
consignee makes no representations about ownership of consigned watch.

in any event the actual auction house had cause to know or should have known it was hot. modern limited edition numerically numbered swiss watch without box and papers seems fishy. on top of that they were notified that it was indeed stolen and provided said paperwork.