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admin · December 14, 2006, 03:30:23 PM

You may want to see what sort of information you could access on this website if you registered and became a member.

PLEASE NOTE: A few topics are locked so you would not be able to post messages there or to reply to messages there.
BUT please contact us if you want to do this and we will unlock the topic so that you can.

admin · January 16, 2015, 11:39:25 AM

In the section: "Sellers of fakes on eBay"
Here you find information about these sellers and many examples of their fakes. Many fotos etc etc.

Also at the top, the worst sellers .

Starting with the worst fake sellers -marked TOP TEN - . This is just the tip of the iceberg. The market is flooded with fakes

TOP TEN artemission
TOP TEN ancient-antiques aca ace-antiques
TOP TEN ancientground/ancient.land aca coinauction12,
other IDs on ebay roman.land,silverdenar
TOP TEN ancienttimes2 (another ID of goldfingure)
TOP TEN ancient_times (a seller from Spain)
TOP TEN ancient_kingdoms (another ID of ancient_times)
TOP TEN antiquiti was mikes-artefacts
TOP TEN goldfingure is also romanantiquity
TOP TEN egdirdlewendy is also handsofhistory
TOP TEN gsalesr
TOP TEN justinijan-coin
TOP TEN luxeon55
TOP TEN ancient-lord aca markovicenza
TOP TEN antique_store-1
TOP TEN guardian-antiquity
TOP TEN moesia_roman_empire aca buy_antique
TOP TEN master-numismatic
TOP TEN impvladimiravg aca mikinumismatics
TOP TEN roman-hunter
TOP TEN only-for-museum
TOP TEN romantiquity (another ID of goldfingure)
TOP TEN uniques77777 (no longer activ)
augusta_fine_art, five_stars_five, alexander_art_classic, helioscoins20177, dboriko new Belgian branch,seuthes3
TOP TEN legiofretensis
TOP TEN tsarevetsfortress

*** The red marked sellers belong to the Serbian group. Item location in all cases the former Yugoslavia. Seller locations worldwide
*** The blue marked seller belong to the Bulgarian fake seller group with the main branch uniques77777. Item location Bulgaria, Germany and Belgium. Seller locations USA, Bulgaria and recently also Belgium and UK
***The green marked sellers are the same family.

*** TOP TEN list updated Dec., 29, 2020

In the section:" Sellers with websites", you will find much information and many many fotos etc about these:

Sadigh Gallery
BC Galleries
ancientantiques
Timeline Auctions
forumantica now called artifactsplanet ****
Southern Urals State Student Association for Archaeology and Anthropology
worldwidestore
ancientantiques.com
HL&HL Antiquities
allfromegypt
bestbuyantiques
Artemission
International Reliquary.
ancientgifts.biz (same as SUSU Student Association for Archaeology and Anthropology )
scarces.com
bidancient
Egyptianseller

chris · May 26, 2017, 07:09:36 AM

This forum suffered a corruption of many of its files.
This is a replacement posting.

2016 - the most successful year for fake manufacturers and sellers.
The worst year for collectors, newbies and bargain hunters.

or the renewed fall of the Roman Empire

Let us state the obvious difference between a copy and a fake on the market – when a buyer knows an object is a copy – it is a copy, when resold as an authentic object – it is a fake.

Since ebay rests on its seller / buyer protection, the fake seller have nothing more to fear. Negative feedbacks can be removed, sometimes happens automatically, namely, if the seller quickly meets the wishes of the buyer for a claim and reimburses the amount. If a counterfeit seller has good connections to the customer service, he will never have to endure negative feedback. 100% positive feedback on 100% sale of counterfeits - not unusual.

Ebay and paypal strategy: profit under all circumstances. Since most buyers do not even notice that they bought fakes, this strategy is paying off.

On the same website are sold replicas and some clicks later from untrustworthy sellers offered as genuine. Legionary rings produced in Yugoslavia, Serbia, Bulgaria, are flooding the market. These forgeries offered over middle-men in the USA, UK and also France, sometimes Germany, often reach fantasy prices. Legion rings are very rarely preserved. This year no week passed without legion rings and as far as I remember, only two of them (offered 2015 and 2016) were genuine. Obviously we need to rewrite history. The Roman Empire was limited only to the Serbian and Romanian territory. And the complete leadership of the Roman Empire including all (I think 30) legions and their higher ranks lost their rings on this territory.

No one has ever wondered where the many silver and gold rings came from. Why the bronze rings suddenly have all the visible engravings and why the sellers know exactly what the engraving means. Of course, all in perfect condition.The extraordinary pieces were without exception all recently found in Serbia / Yugoslavia /Bulgaria and now can be sold thanks God to the appreciative crowd.
Gold only pure, ie 24 ct. although massive golden objects with very high purity have existed only since the 19th century. For example: the Celts promoted mainly river gold, not mountain gold . There are probably gold sand (goldflittchen) from rivers, which reach a purity of over 90%, but that's more the exception.

Last but not least. Lately, Afghan trinkets, Islamic rings, pendants, gold beads, are offered on ebay as Tudor, Queen Anne and Roman artifacts. Bronze, silver, gold plated and gold. But all have in common, they are certainly neither Tudor, Queen Anne, Roman, Celtic or Viking. The source of supply is Thailand..... Ops

We were able to find one fake factory in Eastern Europe with the help of a deceived buyer. Despite appropriate information to the sellers, they continued. Ebay showed no reactions at all. Why also, 10% selling fee are a strong argument. The rest is not interested. As I said, one has indeed the buyer protection. Who does not claim it, has bad luck.

from Being Aware of Fake Archaeological Artefacts http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/Fakes.html

,,Some analysts believe that 90% of all the artefacts and coins sold on internet auctions as genuine are nothing but fakes.

As long as there continues to be a desire to hold and own relics of antiquity there will be others equal to the task of forging them. If a 4000-year-old pottery jug starts selling at 50p on an internet auction, the chances are very high it is not genuine."

By the way: Artifacts may not be exported. Not interested? Most buyers do not care where the object comes from.

"Objects are regarded as objects of illicit import if the persons importing the cultural object are obliged to make sure that the cultural objects are accompanied by valid export permits if the regulations of the country of origin request this . Export licences are to be presented during customs processing."

With the purchase of these illegal antiques are however criminals gangs supported. Should be questioned.

The same applies to the purchase of fakes. Not only the buyers are deceived, indirectly they support these fake sellers. The market for fakes is booming and the buyers of these counterfeits are not entirely innocent. The counterfeiters supply what the market asks. Simple commercial rule: the demand determines the offer.

The run on the fakes continues unabated. We can not prevent it. We can only enlighten and shaking our head accompany this immense fraud.

A happy New Year 2017................... and may the fake collectors finally become less. A first step would be to acquire knowledge.

Welcome to our forum!

chris · December 06, 2017, 04:36:13 PM

We now can also offer an extensive FAKE-RING database.

please read first info
http://ancientartifakes.net/smf/index.php/topic,1227.0.html

and join our forum for more help. Neither you nor your wallet will ever regret it.

chris · March 03, 2018, 05:20:18 PM

That's just one side of our forum - but the most important

admin · March 17, 2018, 04:02:22 PM

We would like to warn customers of Etsy about Mr Simon Brown who has a shop there called "Timeslide"

He is a typical con man. He misrepresents himself as an archaeology graduate from Cambridge University no less!

Here are just a few previews.

If you want to know more and avoid getting ripped off, then join the forum, it is easy to register.

Then look in the section
> Sellers who have websites . (MEMBERS)
> Information about these websites
> "Timeslide" on Etsy

Admin

admin · March 28, 2018, 02:04:37 PM

Many collectors will be surprised and very disappointed to discover this seller's true reputation.
(Mr Antoine Karawani who owns Artemission , a dealership in London UK)

Some information here

http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.com/2015/10/there-is-no-evidence-that-these.html

and then see here

http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.com/2015/02/now-thats-what-i-call-mark-up.html

Also

http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.com/2015/02/now-thats-what-i-call-mark-up.html

There is unfortunately very much more to see but you need to register to see all that is here on this forum.

http://ancientartifakes.net/smf/index.php/topic,822.0.html

chris · May 30, 2018, 05:19:14 PM

fake-troubleshooter

An artist, or less salubriously a faker, can produce copies ('innuendos') of great artworks quite legally in most art market jurisdictions, but will be committing the crime and civil wrong of fraud if an attempt is subsequently made to profit from selling the item with the misrepresentation that it is not a copy.

An antiquity is an ancient object of min. 800 years. Some nice pieces appear on Ebay from time to time. But for each authentic antiquity, there are 100 auctions for fakes offered as a genuine artifact. They range from pretty good reproductions, to incredible garbage, not even old but often sells for many hundreds of dollars . Most of the fakes are terrible reproductions or phantasy products; neither authentic nor well done. Only the most expensive items in the trade are worthy of the time and effort it takes to make a good reproduction. The rest of them are for the most part made in China, Bulgaria, Serbia and you can tell it with a few exceptions.

Don't bid on any ancient object unless you know something about that type of object. Avoid impulse purchases. You may not have been interested in buying ancient art until you saw it on ebay. Research thoroughly before bidding! You may be a honest person, but do not assume that your business partners are just as honest. If you do not know what the object of your desire looks like, then you are an easy prey for cheaters. The best way to spot a reproduction is to know the real thing. Become familiar with whatever item or items you choose to trade in and study everything there is to know about them. There is no substitute for real knowledge Anyway it is fun to learn about the ancient culture that interests you. Look on the web. Go to museums, libraries and bookstores. Buy books before you buy antiquities. And while you are learning about your area of interest and you find online antiquity deals that interest you, consider buying it from a reputable dealer.

Ebay feedback is no longer a reasonable indicator, since ebay removes the negative feedbacks as soon as the scammers immediately fulfill the ebay conditions (refund, withdrawal of the fakes, etc.) People are bidding on fakes will also leave positive feedback when they receive them if they know no better ... worth thinking about.... ask others about the dealer's reputation, join fake forums and ignore the fairy tales which they write on the item description. A neutral feedback does not count against the percentage of positive feedbacks. So you absolutely must read the comments to get the picture. You can view the good, neutral and bad feedback simply by clicking on those categories on the sellers feedback page.

The auction: This is not completely limited to crooks, but in general a long elaborate discussion of historical context should alert you to look for other things. Remember.... long and elaborate. A lot of honest antique and antiquity sellers may give a paragraph or two. Be careful if the offer text always affirm the honesty of the fake seller, or the relevant text modules for other fakes of this seller are only exchanged .

Statements in auctions: Stay away from seller of fakes who insists that he gets some of his antiquities from people who work in excavation sites. Consider in most countries it is illegal to sell and export dug up antiquities. Another crook offers only Museum pieces in large quantities all supposedly inherited. Claims that the antiquity represents or belonged to a known or royal person such as Augustus, Caesar, any king or pharoah, or someone from the Bible (except mass produced in ancient times like a coins, etc.) are surely counterfeits.

Stay away if the antiquity is hard to see. Perhaps the picture is dark or blurry. Perhaps the piece has dirt on it (not the encrusted deposits of the ages). It means dirty with fresh or loose dirt like it was just dug up but not brushed off. Or the dirt appears to be intentionally supplied.

If in doubt look at the seller's other items. If you see some fakes, you can assume that they are all or mostly fakes. Most crooks make a small fortune at the foolishness of the people. Good strategy .... heaps of fakes (rings, attachments, coins) hidden between some real small stuff. Some just honestly don't know the difference themselves. Either way, it is risky to buy from them until you have built up your own knowledge. Myriads of dealers and collectors view ebay for bargains, but above all, the identification of fakes is based on comparison: the experienced collector or dealer will learn to understand why something looks or feels "wrong" but there is always room to learn something new.

Chris

quote: If you have to suspend all logic and rationality in your analysis of the item to believe the item is authentic , then it is a fake, same if it looks too good to be true.
quote: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/most-antiquities-sold-online-are-fake-or-illegal-180967062/

If you're looking for a nice bust of a pharaoh for the patio or some Roman coins to fill out your collection, consider carefully who you choose to do business with. Georgi Kantchev at The Wall Street Journal reports that buying antiquities online is a risky proposition, with the majority of items for sale either counterfeits or illegally looted from archeological sites.
While fakes and looted artifacts have been a problem on the internet for a long time, two recent factors have combined to increase the problem. First, the proliferation of social media and retail platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, eBay, Amazon, WhatsApp and many others has made it simple for looters to directly solicit potential buyers, often sending messages to members of antiquities groups on Facebook and other sites. Second, ISIS has systematically looted the archaeological sites it has taken over in the last half decade, producing an almost unlimited stream of antiquities that it sells directly over social media. The combination has flooded the internet with questionable antiquities.
Neil Brodie, senior research fellow in Endangered Archaeology at the University of Oxford, tells Kantchev that at any given time, there are at least 100,000 antiquities valued at $10 million or more for sale on the internet. Up to 80 percent ** of those items are estimated to be either looted or fake.
"Social media democratized the art market, but it also democratized who can be victimized by the art market," Colette Loll, founder of Art Fraud Insights, a company that investigates art fraud and runs prevention initiatives, tells Julia Halperin at artnet News.

** current estimates are from 90-95%

Archaic · March 18, 2021, 11:20:22 AM

Quote from: admin on March 28, 2018, 02:04:37 PM
Many collectors will be surprised and very disappointed to discover this seller's true reputation.
(Mr Antoine Karawani who owns Artemission , a dealership in London UK)

Some information here

http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.com/2015/10/there-is-no-evidence-that-these.html

and then see here

http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.com/2015/02/now-thats-what-i-call-mark-up.html

Also

http://ancient-heritage.blogspot.com/2015/02/now-thats-what-i-call-mark-up.html

There is unfortunately much more but you need to register to see all that is here on this forum.

http://ancientartifakes.net/smf/index.php/topic,822.0.html

This message copied from Artemission thread today.

This incontravertible evidence of Mr Karawani's longstanding and extensive fraudulent behaviour is really quite disturbing.
One sort of accepts that there will be petty criminals selling fakes on eBay, but tbey are just as likely to sell rip-off fake
high label clothing or cheap replica top market wrist watches as sell antiquities. They know nothing about ancient artifacts and are simply opportunistic thieves. But Mr Karawani holds himself out as a respectable and informed person dedicated for nearly half a century to the conservation and private ownership of ancient artifacts. And yet he turns out ot be either grossly incompetent, reckless with attribution, or worse still, simpy a deceiving fraud. This is really quite some revelation to someone who has acquired pieces from him over a lengthy period of time. Although I dont believe anything I have acquired from him is a fake I still I feel cheated. One wonders if his wife Patricia is aware of this. She has been so helpful and friendly towards me for several decades. I feel confused and angry and extremely disappointed.
G.

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