According to multiple news/media reports (The Dallas Morning News: “Dallas’ Heritage Auction sues Hollywood memorabilia dealers“; The Houston Chronicle: “Auction house files lawsuit over alleged bogus memorabilia“; The Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Dallas auction house says it was conned into selling fakes“; and story originator WFAA-TV: “Dallas auction house claims multi-million dollar reputation damaged“), Heritage Auction Galleries filed suit on Wednesday in Dallas County District Court against Mississippi-based L.A. Prop & Wardrobe Co. and its owners, John Tarter and Billie Null.
According to The Houston Chronicle, the lawsuit filed yesterday “alleges fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract”. The Chronicle story also claims that “a listing could not be found for L.A. Prop” and that “[m]essages left with the L.A. Prop officials listed in the lawsuit were not immediately returned Thursday.”
These events followed the original investigative report by Dallas/Fort Worth’s WFAA-TV Channel 8‘s David Schechter, (a link to a video of the original report can be found at the WFAA.com website). This report was based in part on Rick Spector’s research and investigation early last year (see OPB article, “Heritage Auction Galleries & L.A. Prop & Wardrobe Company“), as well as pieces consigned by L.A. Prop and Wardrobe characterized as being from the “Ann Southern Collection” (also see OPB articles, “WFAA Television News Report on Heritage Auction Galleries, L.A. Prop and Wardrobe: “Systematic Misrepresentation of Provenance“, “More on Heritage Auction Galleries, L.A. Prop & Wardrobe“, “WFAA Television News Report Update: Heritage Auction To Sue L.A. Prop and Wardrobe“). Dallas collector Charles Heard raised concerns last November about one of the pieces he purchased from Heritage that was consigned by L.A. Prop and Wardobe – an Errol Flynn flask – which was a focus of the WFAA-TV investigation.
In today’s article by WFAA-TV, Mr. Schechter reports that Heritage, the third largest auction house in the world, “says the negative publicity of auctioning questionable Hollywood memorabilia has damaged its multi-million dollar reputation”. More from the article:
Heritage wants to recoup the $30,000 it’s now spending to refund customers that bought the items.
It’s also suing to recover on the damage to reputation which, it says, are far more significant.
WFAA-TV further report that L.A. Prop and Wardrobe claim that the items in question are authentic and were purchased in 2002 from a collector in Los Angeles. WFAA-TV states that L.A. Prop and Wardrobe “could not provide the man’s address or telephone number”.
Jack Douglas Jr.’s article for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:
John Tarter, part owner of L.A. Prop, said all of the items it has sold in auctions through Heritage are authentic. “I believe the items are genuine,” Tarter said.
He said his company provided proof of authenticity and “full documentation,” including receipts. Tarter also noted that “Errol Flynn’s” drinking flask had inscribed on it the name, Baron – Flynn’s nickname.
The Star-Telegram article also writes that Greg Rohan, President of Heritage, is pursuing a settlement “far in excess” of the approximately $30,000 required to reimburse buyers of items sold as part of the Ann Southern offerings.
From the Dallas Morning News story (mid-day version), Roy Appleton reports:
Mr. Tarter, a resident of Nampa, Idaho, said Thursday that the items are legitimate and were purchased in 2002 from a collector named Ron Martin in Los Angeles. He said he has been trying to contact Mr. Martin but has neither his address nor telephone number.
The expanded version of the Dallas Morning News story (“Dealer denies Hollywood items sold last year were bogus“) posted tonight reports “[o]ne of those dealers says the accusations are wrong and defamatory”. Per the article, the Heritage suit alleges that Tarter and Null “knew or should have known” that the items sold last April were not authentic. More, that the suit says L.A. Prop and Wardrobe owners “could not prove to Heritage’s satisfaction” that the consignments were authentic and from the Ann Southern collection.
The Morning News article goes on to report that Tarter believes the Ann Southern consignments are “100 percent authentic”, and that Tarter gave Heritage a receipt from his own purchase of items from a Los Angeles collector, Ron Martin, on a handwritten and wrinkled piece of paper, dated October 12, 2002. Per the article, the letter states:
John,
Please accept this as receipt for your recent purchase of the items acquired directly from the Ann Sothern collection as well as items belonging to Lucille Ball, Jimmy Stewart, Errol Flynn, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, etc…for the amount total of $17,618 cash.
In regards to Heritage consigning these pieces for their auction, as noted in the reports by WFAA-TV, the auction house cites a violation of their own company policy by accepting the pieces without staff experts or outside specialists determining authenticity.
The Dallas Morning News article closes summarizing the positions of the two parties:
Mr. Tarter said Heritage, particularly Mr. Rohan, should have fully investigated the complaints and reviewed his supporting documents before publicly denouncing L.A. Prop.
“To throw one of their trusted consigners under the bus like he did is inexcusable,” he said. “We were a legitimate company and are a legitimate company.”
Said Mr. Rohan, “If we thought the items were legitimate from the Ann Sothern collection, we wouldn’t have filed suit.”
I will continue to monitor this story for further developments.
Jason De Bord
Note: This article was updated with additional information from the second Dallas Morning News article.