CAVEAT EMPTOR: The Secret Life of an American Art forger by Ken Perenyi
Author:Ken Perenyi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
CHAPTER NINE
Indian Spring
Unknown to one another, both Tony and Sandy were calling me around the clock, begging for more pictures. I worked day and night building my first substantial collection of early-American paintings. By the time the Miami Beach show rolled around, I had sent Tony a box of paintings that included works by “Peto,” “Buttersworth,” and “Charles Bird King.” José and I packed up a blue Corvette convertible we had just bought with a collection of similar pictures, and left Madeira Beach to meet Paul and Sandy in Miami.
It was my first trip to Miami, and I was impressed and found it all very exciting. We got a hotel room right on the beach and went straight to the convention center, where we helped Paul set up his booth.
Sandy—cowboy boots, BMW, and all—conveniently arrived after all the heavy work was done. Predictably, selling antiques was the last thing on his mind. All Sandy wanted to see was the box of paintings we had stashed under a display table. Within an hour after the show opened, he had sold a “Buttersworth” for four thousand bucks by doing nothing except strolling around the show with it until someone approached him and made an offer.
Antique shows, especially major ones like the Miami Beach show, are crawling with pickers (people who roam the show loaded with cash, hoping to find something they can buy one day and sell the next for a profit). Nothing was hotter in paintings than portraits of American Indians. A Charles Bird King could fetch up to twenty or thirty grand in a high-class gallery in New York, so when Sandy pulled the same trick with a portrait of Peskelechaco, it attracted the attention of two interested parties. Sandy immediately found himself in the middle of a heated argument between two men, each claiming to be the first to negotiate for the painting. Sandy calmed down the belligerents and, in effect, held an auction for the painting right on the spot. He walked away with nearly five grand in cash.
The next morning, Paul, Sandy, and I became the pickers. Flush with cash, we decided to visit the upscale antique shops along Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Once there, we found a shop that boasted an impressive collection of American and European furniture and accessories. The second we set foot in the shop, we were set upon by a nasty little lady who jumped out from behind a desk and followed us around, continually asking, “Is there anything special you’re looking for?”
Even though I was about to make her an offer on a fine little eighteenth-century English writing table that caught my eye, I became irritated with the woman and thought I’d have some fun. “Well, actually, I’m redecorating a house I’ve inherited,” I said. “I’m replacing some of the American with English. I find the American a bit dry for my taste.”
“Oh, really? Do you have anything you’re disposing of?” she inquired.
“Well, I’ve already sold most everything except for a few paintings.
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