Rudy kurniawan & global wine auction fraud thread (merged)

[Russell_Frye]

To Kevin, and others that are similarly astounded:

Many auction houses and other rare wine sellers do NOT put much time into authentication. There are LOTS of reasons. Here are a few:

1. It costs money.
2. It takes time.
3. It requires knowledge.
4. It risks losing sales. Telling the owner that a bottle is questionable or fake would probably mean NOT including it for sale. This could jeopardize the sale of all the bottles from that owner/collector should he leave in a huff and go elsewhere. Many auction houses and other wine businesses would rather take everything they can and, as in the case of the Tang sale, only pull a lot when it seems they have no other choice and when it might help them defend themselves against claims by the media and, however unlikely, the authorities. The edict: Maximize Revenue and Achieve Plausible Deniability.
5. There really is almost no down side. Just about all of these companies have not been penalized in any way.
6. The auction houses generally have written terms which make it clear that if you buy anything from them, you buy it ‘as is’ and you are fully responsible for inspecting the item before purchase. Of course, with wine, the ‘inspection’ may not take place until 20 years later when you open the bottle, so you are screwed.

Being in the wine world, you are highly aware of this problem. However, it exists in EVERY collecting field that I know. Refilling an old bottle and dipping it in melted wax is probably a lot easier than faking a Van Gogh, however.

-russell

[Lewis_Dawson]

Russell Frye, welcome to Wineberserkers. Of course you are correct why this continues to happen. We continue to scream about it with the hope that our voice will be heard every now and then (seems to be happening with Rudy, and we are all too happy to attribute that to Don Cornwell’s great detective work, although others were also involved, perhaps even yourself). I presume (could be wrong) that you are the Russell Frye that has been active in wine fraud litigation, and if you are, we owe you a hearty thank you for your efforts. I can say the lack of good-faith efforts to present authentic wines has been an eye-opener to me. I still feel comfortable with HDH, but Acker and Christie’s have had zero percent of my business in the last few years. I am peanuts compared to most, so I doubt they miss me too much.

[Don_Cornwell]

@Robin Wu

Didnt Zachys recently try to sell a similar bottle of 71 La Tache (both in HK and in NY Paulee Auction)? IIRC, they pulled the lot in HK.

Robin:

You are partially correct and partially incorrect. Zachy’s NY catalog for September 27-28 2012 originally included Lot 1272 – a purported Jeroboam of 1971 La Tâche (bottle No. 0095) with Foreign Brands strip labels (again with the quantity in pints and ounces and handwritten corrections) and a two signature label identical to the one in the Tang auction. As some of you may recall, many subtantially identical bottles of 1971 La Tâche and Romanée Conti have originated from Rudy Kurniawan, some of which were clearly demonstrated to be counterfeit.

I saw the catalog and I contacted Jeff Zacharia and Michael Jessen at Zachy’s and shared the information I had, along with multiple photographs. To their credit, Zachy’s pulled the bottle.

In December, Zachy’s Hong Kong received another very similar jeroboam of 71 La Tâche which someone wanted to consign for auction. David Wainwright from Zachy’s Hong Kong contacted me, long before the bottle ever made the catalog, to ask my opinion. I shared some additional data with Zachys that I had gathered about similar bottles in the preceding two months. This bottle also had an alleged original wooden case which did not match those from other known authentic exemplars. To the credit of Mr. Wainwright and Zachy’s, they declined to offer the jeroboam.

The jeroboam of 71 La Tâche in this month’s Zachy’s Paulee auction (Lot 1070) I believe to be be an authentic bottle. It was consigned by a good friend of mine who is one of the people who has been fighting valiantly against counterfeits with me for many years. This bottle had a Lebègue neck label (a correct one with the correct accent mark and correct Et symbol instead of an ampersand), it was a single signature bottle (H. de Villaine), with five digits (00011) and Produce of France on the label above the block La Tâche, as the UK bottles from this vintage should have. It was also acquired by my friend from Christie’s London on November 20, 1986 (lot 269).

Unlike Christie’s, Acker-Merrall and Morrell who, with the single exception of the 71 La Tache Methuselah in the Henry Tang auction, have simply ignored my communications for the past year, Zachy’s deserves applause for doing the right thing – when wines were shown to be suspect (even if not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be counterfeit) they withdrew the wines. Spectrum also did that with one lot this past fall – again I salute Spectrum for doing the right thing – just as I criticized both entities in the past.

My friends and I continue to monitor the auction market as best we can (we all have full time jobs and it is often tremendously time consuming to try to ‘document’ for an auction house why a particular wine is counterfeit or suspect.) Our collective expertise is mostly in burgundy and so it is likely that many counterfeit bottles escape our notice (and bear in mind we’re limiited to photos in the catalogs or the occassional requested photos).

When we see things that we believe are counterfeit or strongly suspected to be counterfeit we notify the auction houses, explain and document the problems, and ask them to pull the wines. We don’t publicize these activities where the auction houses do the right thing. Also sometimes there are some wines we think are suspect that the auction companies disagree with us on where we haven’t made a public issue about it. What gets reported here is somewhat a question of judgment.

[scott_c]

@Todd F r e n c h

This just hit my inbox - Tang wine auction clouded by doubts over authenticity | South China Morning Post

“Tang said they were bought from a reputable British agent 20 years ago.”

This is baloney.

[gene_keenan]

@Russell Frye

<snip

Being in the wine world, you are highly aware of this problem. However, it exists in EVERY collecting field that I know. Refilling an old bottle and dipping it in melted wax is probably a lot easier than faking a Van Gogh, however.

-russell

You are spot on sir.

[Bruce_Leiser_owitz]

@gene keenan

@Russell Frye

<snip

Being in the wine world, you are highly aware of this problem. However, it exists in EVERY collecting field that I know. Refilling an old bottle and dipping it in melted wax is probably a lot easier than faking a Van Gogh, however.

-russell

You are spot on sir.

+1. Anyone who has watched shows like Antiques Roadshow or even Pawn Stars has seen a number of items that are supposed one thing from 100+ years ago turn out to be more recent reproductions or just outright fakes. It obviously takes a certain level of expertise and determination to separate the likely wheat from the suspicious chaff. If folks can fake items ranging from baseball cards to Picasso paintings, then obviously it’s not much of a surprise what can (and does) happen in the wine field.

Bruce

[Mike_E]

@Bruce Leiserowitz

@gene keenan

[
A detailed counterfeit wine allegation by Los Angeles-based lawyer Don Cornwell has been circulating on Wine Berserkers, an online forum with more than a million registered wine buffs, and other forums since Saturday.

Congrats Todd on reaching a million members!!!

I dare say many of us aren’t really that buff, but why quibble over adjectives?

Bruce

Isn’t that was a wine buff is?.. people who quibble about adjectives (and sometimes adverbs) when describing wine!

[Carol_Forest]

I wrote and published an article right before Tang’s Auction last week suspecting counterfeits (warned by friends in HK that I may get sued) and today had published another post in regards of Christie’s reply and the withdrawal here:
http://qipost.com/christie-s-the-henry-tang-collection
(15 March in chinese)

http://carolforest.com/2013/03/20/dumping-or-sharing/
(19 March in English)

[NickWittman]

@Don Cornwell

My friends and I continue to monitor the auction market as best we can (we all have full time jobs and it is often tremendously time consuming to try to ‘document’ for an auction house why a particular wine is counterfeit or suspect.) Our collective expertise is mostly in burgundy and so it is likely that many counterfeit bottles escape our notice (and bear in mind we’re limiited to photos in the catalogs or the occassional requested photos).

Continued good work keeping everyone well updated Don. The particular comment in Bold is notable. Remember the file cabinet picture taken at RK’s home was filled with Bordeaux labels! Will a list of the specific wines / vintages from the labels ever come to light as a result of these hearings? At a minimum, would be “red flag list” for wine buyers to consider prior to purchase, or initiate an audit of their personal cellar if the wines already exist? The fraudulent activity was pretty big, and suspect the same for the cleanup!

[Mike_E]

@NickWittman

@Don Cornwell

My friends and I continue to monitor the auction market as best we can (we all have full time jobs and it is often tremendously time consuming to try to ‘document’ for an auction house why a particular wine is counterfeit or suspect.) Our collective expertise is mostly in burgundy and so it is likely that many counterfeit bottles escape our notice (and bear in mind we’re limiited to photos in the catalogs or the occassional requested photos).

Continued good work keeping everyone well updated Don. The particular comment in Bold is notable. Remember the file cabinet picture taken at RK’s home was filled with Bordeaux labels! Will a list of the specific wines / vintages from the labels ever come to light as a result of these hearings? At a minimum, would be “red flag list” for wine buyers to consider prior to purchase, or initiate an audit of their personal cellar if the wines already exist? The fraudulent activity was pretty big, and suspect the same for the cleanup!

Yes indeed, we are lucky to have Don and his friends checking out the Burgundies.
The other labels and boxes are very worrying and possibly worth a thread of their own. I’m sure someone must have some data to share on the Bordeaux, Californian and other labels that are known counterfeits.

[Jay_Miller]

FYI, I was reading the South China Morning Post we got in our room this morning and lo and behold there was an article on counterfeit wine with a quote from Don.

Don, let me know if you’d like me to mail the article to you, I’ll pack it just in case.

[Brad_Kane]

@Jay Miller

FYI, I was reading the South China Morning Post we got in our room this morning and lo and behold there was an article on counterfeit wine with a quote from Don.

Don, let me know if you’d like me to mail the article to you, I’ll pack it just in case.

Or, you can do what all the kids do these days and find a link on the Internet: Wine investors warned to be vigilant after doubts over Henry Tang sales

[ToddFrench]

@Brad Kane

@Jay Miller

FYI, I was reading the South China Morning Post we got in our room this morning and lo and behold there was an article on counterfeit wine with a quote from Don.

Don, let me know if you’d like me to mail the article to you, I’ll pack it just in case.

Or, you can do what all the kids do these days and find a link on the Internet: Wine investors warned to be vigilant after doubts over Henry Tang sales

Or this post - RUDY KURNIAWAN & GLOBAL WINE AUCTION FRAUD THREAD (MERGED) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

[Brad_Kane]

@Todd F r e n c h

@Brad Kane

@Jay Miller

FYI, I was reading the South China Morning Post we got in our room this morning and lo and behold there was an article on counterfeit wine with a quote from Don.

Don, let me know if you’d like me to mail the article to you, I’ll pack it just in case.

Or, you can do what all the kids do these days and find a link on the Internet: Wine investors warned to be vigilant after doubts over Henry Tang sales

Or this post - RUDY KURNIAWAN & GLOBAL WINE AUCTION FRAUD THREAD (MERGED) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

Two different articles, Frenchie.

[Mel_Hill]

A detailed counterfeit wine allegation by Los Angeles-based lawyer Don Cornwell has been circulating on > Wine Berserkers, an online forum with more than a million registered wine buffs> , and other forums since Saturday.

Way to go Todd!!!
Hope 50% are paying customers!!

Tang wine auction clouded by doubts over authenticity

[paul_hanna]

@Russell Frye

To Kevin, and others that are similarly astounded:

Many auction houses and other rare wine sellers do NOT put much time into authentication. There are LOTS of reasons. Here are a few:

1. It costs money.
2. It takes time.
3. It requires knowledge.
4. It risks losing sales. Telling the owner that a bottle is questionable or fake would probably mean NOT including it for sale. This could jeopardize the sale of all the bottles from that owner/collector should he leave in a huff and go elsewhere. Many auction houses and other wine businesses would rather take everything they can and, as in the case of the Tang sale, only pull a lot when it seems they have no other choice and when it might help them defend themselves against claims by the media and, however unlikely, the authorities. The edict: Maximize Revenue and Achieve Plausible Deniability.
5. There really is almost no down side. Just about all of these companies have not been penalized in any way.
6. The auction houses generally have written terms which make it clear that if you buy anything from them, you buy it ‘as is’ and you are fully responsible for inspecting the item before purchase. Of course, with wine, the ‘inspection’ may not take place until 20 years later when you open the bottle, so you are screwed.

Being in the wine world, you are highly aware of this problem. However, it exists in EVERY collecting field that I know. Refilling an old bottle and dipping it in melted wax is probably a lot easier than faking a Van Gogh, however.

-russell

What I find amazing is that they (many of the big auction houses) just don’t seem to care at all about their reputation, or how they are looking after their clients (especially those who are spending the big bucks), and the possible serious consequences of their actions so far.

Seems they are much more interested in a short term cash grab than in building a solid, long term business with clients who can trust in them and their integrity and in what they are selling…

[paul_hanna]

@Carol Forest

I wrote and published an article right before Tang’s Auction last week suspecting counterfeits (warned by friends in HK that I may get sued) and today had published another post in regards of Christie’s reply and the withdrawal here:
Home
(15 March in chinese)

http://carolforest.com/2013/03/20/dumping-or-sharing/
(19 March in English)

A good read and a nice article, thanks Carol.

[C_Chan]

a statement from Henry Tong a couple of hours ago.

“I have always taken due care and diligence regarding the provenance of the wines I have bought over the last 30+ years. The Domaine de la Romanee Conti (DRC) wines being questioned were bought from a reliable source with a sterling record. I have no reason to doubt their origins.Indeed, the DRC has considered these provenance and has not raised any doubts about them.It is hardly convincing for anyone who purports to know wine just by looking at the labels without going into their provenance.”

[billnanson]

@C Chan
Hahaha - of-course, the domaine are quite liable to use the wrong labels

[alan_weinberg]

cover article on the current issue of Bourgogne Aujourd’hui has Laurent Ponsot as the lead into an article on fraud and fake wines in Burgundy–got the issue yesterday but haven’t had time yet to peruse it.
alan