About MY MISTAKE after reading EBAY Guide on fake Egyptian antiquities by ARTEMIS GALLERY owner/partner
Written: Mar 18 '07
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Two words summarize my feelings about my experience with the ebay seller Artemis Gallery after purchasing an Egyptian antiquity from their non-ebay Internet store: Nightmare experience.
In a litigious world, I will preface my review by stating THESE ARE MY PERSONAL OPINIONS. What 'he said, she said' during my ordeal is paraphrased from memory. Perhaps others will step up to the plate and relay their good experiences? Maybe my experience was atypical to other customer experiences at this store?
I feel humiliated at what I'm about to say, but believe telling my experience will help others. Perhaps the process of admitting my mistakes will make me a more responsible collector.
My mistake in hindsight seems rather irresponsible: clicking on ebay seller Artemis Gallery's web store from its ebay store (About the Seller > Favorite Links) outside of ebay AFTER reading its ebay guide warning against fake Egyptian antiquities. I should have never let someone's seemingly expert advice get me all fired up to buy from their store. The price I paid was the customer experience there soured me to collecting Egyptian antiquities.
Trust no one, not even those with the best 'reputation' has been this week's lesson for me.
Going to Artemis Gallery after reading the ebay guide against fake Egyptian antiquities and dishonest sellers on 3/13/2007, I found a beautiful 26th Dynasty Egyptian Faience Ushabti for what seemed like a reasonable price. It was about twice the average price on ebay, but I figured years from now its authenticity would make-up for the difference.
I have always been enchanted with the Egyptian culture and this represented my first real collectible in Egyptian antiquities. I was so excited and immediately joined the Yahoo group 'Ancient Artifacts' where this seller is a respected member. I also joined the Artemis Gallery mailing list, both of which I have opted out due to what I'm about to describe.
Two days ago on Friday, 3/16/2007, I received a voicemail from the owner of the gallery (and author of the ebay guide that attracted me to it). He politely asked me to call the Artemis Gallery 'about a matter regarding my purchase' or similar words, without a hint of trouble in his voice. However, I had a bad feeling for reasons I cannot explain.
I called the gallery and his wife and partner answered. I mentioned the call, she asked if he gave me 'details' about my purchase in the voice message I received, and I said 'No'. She immediately transferred me to a woman there who was supposed to be handling my order.
The woman calmly, without a hint of remorse or upset at what she was about to describe, said my 26th Dynasty Egyptian Faience Ushabti was 'dropped on the floor and broke in half' during packaging for shipment!
My heart sank. Authentic Egyptian antiquities are the rarest of the rarest. I ordered a rare treasure in pristine condition, that survived undamaged for thousands of years, and someone dropped it!
Think about this for a moment.
How many times do you hear of museum curators or auctioneers at Christies, Sothebys and other professions dropping rare Egyptian antiquities?
Uh, perhaps never?
I never have heard of this! Perhaps if this merchant was an ebay seller, someone hawking so-called 'authentic' Egyptian wares on ebay for instance, I would have shrugged and chalked it up to experience. I could have felt comfort in believing the item might have been fake.
However, this was no fake item. This seller was reputed through the Yahoo group 'Ancient Artifacts' to be the creme de la creme in authentic Egyptian antiquities! This might as well have been a museum curator return-shipping my consignment after an exhibit!
She offered me choices: to have the item restored, or issue a credit (which I interpreted as meaning a store credit, although she might have meant a credit card refund). She expressed no remorse whatsoever in her tone of voice, and tendered an obligatory, emotionless apology. She even offered to let me 'think about it before making a decision on how to proceed' or similar words to that effect.
I gave it 2 seconds thought, and told her I wanted a refund to my credit card.
She didn't offer a return authorization number as my credit card company later indicated she should have done. In order to stop interest from accruing, and having no tangible proof she would refund my money, I had no choice but to immediately call the credit card company soon as she hung-up, and chargeback the order. This killed an hour of my Friday.
Having lived through a horrible ending to an otherwise good week, I feel demoralized.
A rare Egyptian artifact has been destroyed.
A piece of history in its pristine glory is lost forever.
Sure it can be 'restored' but not only does this depreciate the item. Who glibly drops an item and shrugs it off as a candidate for restoration? And besides, I feel suspicious that anyone could carelessly drop a rare piece of history.
Moving an article around a gallery daily to rearrange the store is one thing, subjecting items to breakage. What is the probability anyone would drop an item while packing it, an item that only gets handled for shipping a few times in a lifetime? I never heard of it happening.
I'm almost age 50 and never have experienced such seeming disregard for history and lack of remorse after the careless deed.
I feel forever deprived of a piece of Egyptian history that I planned on one day donating to a museum! I even ordered a Membrane Box (membranebox.com) to specially store and display this rare treasure without risking of breakage. I went to extreme trouble to avoid damaging this treasure by preparing a 'home' for it and ordering a special box in advance.
As a collector of non-Egyptian antiquities I feel like a custodian of history and obligated to take extraordinary care of the antiquities I collect. I'm heartbroken there are people out there who treat these treasures as merchandise to be hastily slapped into a shipping box for a quick sale. At least that is my impression of this event.
In summary, I gave an ebay seller credibility based on their ebay guide on fraud. I traded directly with this ebay seller's outside web site, paying through Trocadero (similar to ebay). I regret it. If I had a time machine, I would go back and simply take the ebay guide's advice with a grain of salt, and not have ordered from this seller on the basis of perceived credibility.
My lesson: Never give anyone credibility because they publish seemingly expert advice that a major corporation like ebay endorses.
Some have asked how did ebay endorse this guide?
For example, anyone going to the ebay Guide titled 'A Few of eBay's Worst-of-the-Worst Egyptian Fakes...' by Artemis Gallery owner/partner will notice the author of this article authoritatively states 'Of those selling fakes on eBay, here are the worst of the worst: (list of ebay member seller IDs)'. These sellers are in good standing with ebay, some having almost 100% feedback ratings due to a high percentage of ebay member satisfaction.
Now, even though these ebay sellers are in good standing and many have excellent feedback, ebay allows this seller to condemn them, I quote, as 'those selling fakes on eBay' and 'the worst of the worst'!
Obviously to me, ebay's legal department must consider this seller as an EXPERT in the field of Egyptian antiquities to allow this seller to make statements that under ordinary legal circumstances (at least in the United States, to my knowledge) are libelous!
The seller has publicly condemned these sellers. In an authoritative 'guide' advising anyone considering buying Egyptian antiquities, these sellers are in essence branded as FRAUDS; how else could you interpret those accused of selling fakes they represent as genuine antiquities of the Egyptian era?
If a curator at the Smithsonian was writing this article for ebay, and condemned these sellers, the sellers would probably not have a leg to stand on legally. Therefore, I assumed (and falsely so, in hindsight) ebay considered this seller an expert on the field of Egyptian antiquities, saved harmless from litigation because any court in the world would likely consider him an expert in the field.
Therefore, I eagerly went to the seller's ebay site, wanting to lower my risk of getting a fake. I figured if this individual was so respected in the field ebay wasn't worried about his condemnation of these sellers -- even though they are technically in good standing with ebay -- this was the place to buy my first REAL, authentic Egyptian antiquity.
Maybe this seller is on par with the best museum curators in the world. Maybe a court would automatically throw out any legal action against the seller by these ebay stores because everyone in the field would testify he is an expert.
The bottomline is if ebay had challenged this man's condemnation of ebay's sellers in good standing, I may not have drawn the conclusion he was expert in the world in this field. I wouldn't have gone to his store.
Ebay seems to hold this individual in high esteem. He is listed on ebay Guide 10000000001244174 as a 'Top 5000 Reviewer' and 'Power Seller'. Ebay gave him a platform to publish his guide and publicly condemn some of their other sellers, many whom ebay recognizes as legit sellers, as purveyors of fake Egyptian antiquities.
Therefore, I figured buying at his site outside of ebay was safe because ebay was willing to go out on a limb. Ebay must have really investigated this seller's background and qualifications. Ebay must have been prepared to back this seller legally if its other sellers, whom this seller adversely mentions in this ebay guide, were to claim they were libeled.
The only reason I question everything now, is because my experience doesn't coincide with my perception of what constitutes a professional in this field.
I hope someone reading this review can learn from my mistake.
Recommended:
No
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About the Author
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