we signed: Sadigh Gallery Ancient Art Inc. - A matter of Great Concern
# 108
I am a very inexperienced collector. I am now concerned about the many allegations against the company because I recently spent a considerable sum of money (certainly for me, anyway) on some items while visiting his gallery. I am not qualified to say whether or not they are frauds, but I do hope that this is properly looked into.
Mr. KEITH MADDEN, NJ
# 106
I bought 3 artefacts from them in the late 1990s, all of which were guaranteed to be ancient Egyptian. Now it seems they're not worth the paper on which the guarantees are written. Sue Sadigh for fraud & close them down!
# 104
The famed shipwreck salver Robert Marx gets fakes from this guy among other sources and has been reselling them as genuine shipwreck artifacts for the last 20 years. He is being sued for this activity now. Check
http://webinfo4.brevardclerk.us with case file 05-2012-CA-020530. Reports to the FBI went unanswered for this as well. I cannot believe these scum can get away with their crimes for so long.
Mr. Matthew Orkisz, MI
# 102
I worked there. FAKE!!!
# 99
As an egyptologist/archaeologist I hate the hardly discernable fakes as fraud! Not the cheep tourist fakes of which villagers indeed are dependent. But not only the "chique" fraud is immoral ! Here in Holland we have currently a huge discussion on a famous kind of "Antques Roadhow" on tv, in which showing of and so encouraging trading in illegally imported genuine antiquities is to be condemned. (Egyptologist/archaeologist)
Dr.Maarten Kersten, Netherlands
# 98
I purchased 3 items from Sadigh a few years ago when I was a real novice in ancient items. I realize now they are fakes but it's too late to return them.
# 92
Every dealer and every collector will eventually be fooled, but the fact that the Sadigh Gallery consists almost completely of obvious fakes, after 30 years in the business, suggests fraud, not incompetence. This business has been a source of heartache and disappointment to many beginning collectors, and its prominence among antiquities dealers, through massive and aggressive marketing, serves to give a bad name to an entire profession.
Mr. Mike Smith, ON
# 91
There is a great deal of commentary online about Mehrdad Sadigh and also a lot which clearly he puts out trying to defend himself. I came across this. So let the man speak for himself! This is copied and pasted as it appears. No comment needed really.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> New York City, NY (PressExposure) -- Collecting ancient art forms or art species is a very popular habit for many people. They do not mind in spending lot of money and time over collecting authentic artifacts from any corner of the planet. They prefer to roam around to find several art species from the ancient era to keep in their possession. This really leads to an exceptional satisfaction of possessing some rare collection from the by gone era. This is undoubtedly and innovative hobby but incorporates a huge risk of being befooled. It is very essential to have the basic knowledge about the authenticity of the object that you are collecting for such a possession by spending huge amount of money. Even you need to have access to a very reliable source so that you can never befooled without some fraud species. Sadigh Gallery Art is such a collection that can provide authentic artifacts from different age. You can have a wide access of variety in art forms in this sadigh gallery art company. They try to provide variation in your old artifact collection y providing a wide rang of artifacts from the by gone days. Sadigh Gallery Ancient Art brings several authentic species of ancient art including jewelry and framed form. You can purchase according to your requirement and preference just by a click. It is a spontaneous urge for all human beings to discover the mysteries of unknown and the mysteries of the by gone days reserves a special attention for all ages. This is the reason behind the huge research and collection of species from the ancient days. People love to keep various art forms from the old age in their personal collection. This is really an innovative collection, as each and every species can never have a replica. Sadigh Gallery Ancient Art Company can give you pleasure of having the rare collection from the by gone era in various forms of your choice. Sometime people who love to collect such artifacts fail to judge the authenticity. That is reason it is preferable to go to the reliable gallery so that you can never befooled. Sadigh Gallery can give you a complete assurance on the issue of authenticity
damien michon, France
Mr. Joseph Mastrario, GA
# 88
I myself have been a victim of Sadigh Galleries fakes. I was heartbroken to find several items we purchased for my mother turned out to be fakes. Not only do they rip off the public. They also hurt the legitimate antiquities
Mr. Spyros Skouras, CA
# 83
I have been a serious antiquities collector & dealer for many years.I have run across fakes from Sadigh Gallery several times & have even purchased some from another collector. Although the fakes were accepted by Sadigh- the purchaser had to be convinced to return to Sadigh. There are many inexperienced collectors like the one who had the fake item & think the item is genuine.These people are all being cheated without any knowledge of it.
# 79
This is clearly fraudulent activity, and ,at a minimum, false advertising. There should be a push to garner a class for legal action?
Mr. Thomas Albert, VA
Mar 13, 06:27
# 78
Fraud is fraud no matter how it is disguised.
Mr. Scott Semans, WA
# 77
Investigation or class action is needed. He was selling good material in the 1980s when I last dealt with him, but evidently things have changed.
Name not displayed, United Kingdom
# 76
I have collected ancient art for many years. Approximately 15 years ago I bought a seemingly Roman sculpture from a biochemistry professor in the USA who was liquidating his collection at the time to fund some expensive surgery which he was in need of. When I received my purchase, on close inspection, it was obviously fake. A second opinion from the British Museum concurred with my opinion. I had to therefore return the sculpture to the professor, giving him the bad news. He was apparently promptly re-reimbursed by the seller, who I was told was in fact Sadigh Gallery. Hope this helps! Regards, Eftis.
# 74
Something HAS to be done to protect the innocent public from fraudulent and deceptive practices.
Richard Banks, VA
# 71
Its absolutely atrocious Sadigh has been deceiving the public for so long and nothing has been done to stop the fraud.
Richard Knack, MI
# 69
I had the writing on a cylinder seal that I purchased from Sadigh Gallery read by an expert. It turned out the cuneiform had no meaning at all, making the cylinder seal from 500 bc a fake.
Mr. Subramaniam Iyer, VA
# 68
When I started collecting, I was also duped by a seller at GoAntiques whose name I don't remember clearly now - it was Near Eastern Treasures or something like that. I had paid $280 for a trash that he claimed was a cylinder seal from Syria. I was an amateur, a novice in that field and was a sitting duck for these kind of people to exploit at that time. Seening Sadigh's stock online, reminded me of those days and I understand how frustrated anybody can be, when they learn that the artefact that they've acquired by spending their hard earned money is a fake and isn't worth anything. Is it a sin, if somebody wishes to pursue his/her passion of studying, collecting and enjoying artefacts of one's area of interest. More than feeling bad about the monetary loss, I felt more dissappointed about the fact that someone can betray my trust to make a quick buck. I think this petition is a collective effort in the right direction in teaching these crooks a lesson. I think sites like ebay and goAntiques also should be sent these kind of petitions which will force them to crack down on these kind of dubious sellers. I'm still uncomfortable with the thought, that somewhere, somebody even now, who's just started to collect and learn about things that he/she is passionate about, is being duped by unscruplous dealers like Sadign to make a quick buck.I hope and pray they don't undergo the same mental agony that I did a few years ago, when I started collecting.
Name not displayed, United Kingdom
# 66
I was once defrauded by Mr. Sadigh in the 1980's. No matter where one stands on the issue of private ownership of antiquities, there is no place for fraud or fakes. Fakes only blur the academic line in the study of ancient art. Ancient art has been collected by private citizens for millenia and it is they who founded many museums and their collections. One may believe the ancient art market promotes looting but it does not have to and most who own such objects repute looting and desire objets collected legally and well provenanced. As an archeaologists one may prefer the collection of marked replicas by the public but to defend forgers and those who sell fake is like defending the profoundly dishonest Heinrich Schliemann, father of field archaeology. He and his motives have left centuries of questions. In defending forgers , you defend the moustache on the mask of Agamemnon itself and all the questions and waisted time caused by dishonesty.
Ms. Heather Helbig, VI
# 65
If it hadn;t been for the Yahoo Group Ancientartifact I to would have fallen foul of this trickery.
moheb salem, Egypt
# 63
I have had dealings (all bad) with this person. Nothing I b ought was authentic. We were also harrassed to sell items to him, which he claimed were fake (They were later determined to be authentic) He offered much more than than what we paid, but far less than half their true worth.
Doug Hill, MI
# 60
It is amazing this Guy has been defrauding the public for 30 years.. And continues today!
Rod Rogers, NY
# 54
Beware all investors and art lovers.
Mr. Pekka Erelt, Estonia
# 53
If we compare the passion for antiquities with unspoiled nature, we see that Sadigh Gallery is like an environmental pollution..
Emily Cunningham, RI
# 51
For years I have been appalled at the massive number of blatant fake items this dealer has been selling, "guaranteeing authenticity" yet undeniably knowing that they are cheap tourist fakes. As soon as a collector or dealer speaks out against this fraud it appears the gallery owners have some way of attacking them and having blog posts, incriminating evidence, negative reviews and new stories exposing them removed from the web. Hopefully this petition will survive their attempts.
Mr. Nils Anders Lunde, Norway
Dr. Peter Meloncelli, AB
# 47
Curator of the Egyptian department of the RMO Leiden, told me the artefacts I bought from Sadigh Gallery are fake.
send a green star
Robert Pearson, CO
# 45
Let us call a spade a spade. The man is a fraud and a cheat and has duped literally thousands of would be collectors over very many years. If he suddenly had to refund money to everyone who bought a fake with a certificate of authenticity he would go bust overnight.
Robert Dodge, CO
# 40
I'm a serious collector of Greek and Egyptian antiquities for over 15 years, and I can tell with certainty that his his artifacts are not genuine.
send a green star
Dr. Kerry Drew, CA
Mar 06, 04:33
# 39
As a professional artist, art authenicator and collector of art and artifacts for more than 40 years, I hereby state that I have seen numerous items displayed for sale by Sadigh Gallery, and represented as genuine ancient artifacts which are unquestionably not ancient, not genuine artifacts, but items either misrepresented as ancient, or else, were both manufactured and advertised to deliberately deceive the ignorant and unwary buyer; or in other words, to cheat and to rob them . -KMD-
R. L. HAY, AZ
# 35
I am former customer and should be able to sign twice! Although I received a full refund for all items purchased, and it was a learning experience, Mr. Sadigh is knowingly selling thousands of fake modern items and representing them as being ancient artifacts. By signing his COA's he is basically admitting that. I hope he is forced one day to open his books and provide refunds to all customers!
Ms. Emma Visser, Netherlands
# 34
I bought Egyptian artifacts from him. Experts told me that they are fakes.
Name not displayed, CT
# 33
I wonder what the rate of return is at this gallery? Don't buy on faith, even good reputable dealers can make a mistake. Know or get help with your artifacts and never buy from a dealer that does not have a hassle-free return policy.
Mrs. Pam Boland, GA
# 31
There are a lot of sincere collectors who have spent their hard earned money on this man's trash, believing that they are buying a piece of history.
send a green star
Mr. Konstantin Trubin, Russian Federation
# 25
One does not know to what extent Mr Mehrdad Sadigh is knowlegeable or not about ancient artefacts. After all, on the face of it he has next to no experience at all of genuine ancient artefacts. The fact that he can describe as Roman diplomas several poorly made and near enough identical replicas of Sabean inscribed votive plaques rather illustrates this. There are very many of these somewhat strange descriptive errors on his colourful website. One does not know what is in Mr Sadigh’s mind and it could conceivably be the case that even after a reputedly large number of buyers, over a very long period of time, have returned pieces saying that they have been very reliably informed that they are not ancient artefacts, that Mr Sadigh honestly continues to believe that they are genuinely ancient. One does not know why Mr Sadigh has not thought to himself, “how come so many people return things?”. Does he not wonder to himself why he has been getting such bad publicity from so many quarters and for so very long? Could it be that he simply doesn’t know anything at all about ancient artefacts , doesn’t realise that these things he buys in such large quantities, many of such exceptionally poor quality and looking nothing like the genuine article, are simply fantasy pieces and low end tourist souvenirs? Maybe he simply cannot admit to himself that he has been taken for a ride, badly deceived and cheated by the people he has bought from over the last few decades? If he set his mind to discovering whether all this criticism of what he sells is actually justified, he could achieve that quite easily as the proper assessment of his wares is not a difficult task at all. The assertion that the vast majority of his items for sale are not antiquities at all is actually very easy to substantiate. Finally, on looking at his website for about 15 minutes this evening I was able to find a few Egyptian scarabs and amulets which are probably genuine, but the overwhelming majority of items there are such that a collector who has spent only a little time and effort would not for a moment think an ancient artefact. For his own peace of mind and dignity surely Mr Sadigh needs to know the truth about his stock.
Dr. Bron Lipkin, United Kingdom
# 20
It is time this crook is stopped!!!
send a green star
Lev Venislavski, Israel
Mar 05, 17:09
# 18
I am a university history professor, an expert in Chinese antiquities, and can state authoritatively that Sadigh sales in this area and many related ones are fraudulent.
Name not displayed, Belgium
# 16
I agree there needs to be a full investigation by the press and relevant law enforcement agencies. Large scale sale of fakes as genuine antiquities harms the business of all legitimate dealers.
Ms. Pee Moran, United Kingdom
# 14
I have owned a few of there pieces to only discover they were fakes. Each piece had a certificate of authenticity. Each piece was a fake!
Dave Welsh, CA
# 13
I agree that Sadigh Gallery should be investigated by responsible authorities to determine whether this gallery sells fake antiquities, represented as genuine, are true. I am the proprietor of Classical Coins (
www.classicalcoins.com) and owner of two online discussion lists, one on cultural property law and one on fake antiquities. I do not believe that any antiquarian who has been in business for 30 years could possibly be so ignorant of his subject that he would believe that items of the sort Sadigh is alleged to be selling are genuine.
# 11
Sadigh has been cheating people for far too long. Action is long overdue!
Rick Madge, ON
Mar 05, 15:35
# 10
I foolishly bought items from this man in the past, and eventually discoverd them to be fake. These items even came with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Sadigh himself.
send a green star
Ms. Dana McCall, NC
# 9
Absolutely appalling! It is really difficult to find a genuine antiquity on his webpage
Dr. Joel Hurwitz, MA
# 8
This man has been ripping people off for too long and deserves to be prosecuted
Mr. Frank Boehmer, Germany
# 6
As a serious collector of Roman and Greek antiquities I am appalled by the blatant fakes and cheap tourist souvenirs for which this dealer charges very high prices to ingenuous buyers, and urge the relevant authorities to take action on this long running business of forgery and fraud.
send a green star
Mr. Edward Shapiro, NJ
# 5
In 2012, soon after I began collecting antiquities, I paid Sadigh Gallery more than $2,000 for items Michael Sadigh represented to me to be authentic. Although I visited Sadigh Gallery before buying anything, Michael Sadigh told me that none of the items which I saw in his catalog which I was interested in were available to be viewed at his gallery. I did not get to see any of the items before paying for them. I was only able to see images of them in Sadigh Gallery's "auction" catalog. The items were shipped to me with separate Certificates of Authenticity for each item signed by Michael Sadigh. All items which had "inscriptions" also came with translations. When I showed these items to knowledgeable antiquities collectors, academics, scholars and dealers, they were ALL identified as fakes. Also, all the inscription translations provided by Sadigh Gallery were fake; some of the translations provided come from famous published museum pieces and most of the inscriptions themselves turned out to be nonsensical gibberish. Sadigh Gallery refunded all of my money, including all shipping costs, without hesitation.
nicolas chiriacescu, Switzerland
