Sadigh Gallery

Sadigh Gallery in NYC has long been accused of selling fake antiquities and ancient coins. A CT search on "Sadigh" brings up quite a few posts, and many of us have been amazed he could get away with it selling from a brick-and-mortar store where the fakes were on display.

Maybe his time is over. The New York Times has an article entitled:

"He Sold Antiquities for Decades, Many of Them Fake, Investigators Say"

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/...ace=eos-more-in&variant=0_bandit-all-surfaces

The Manhattan DA had him arrested earlier this month.

 

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Well, that's good news!

I know of at least one well-known 'manufacturer' this side of the Atlantic whom I'd happily see share a similar fate.

 

Wow.
I would love to own a legitimate ancient artifact akin to some of the pieces that @DonnaML has shared with us.
That being said, just seeing this guy's shop front screams "sketchy" to me. So many ancient antiquities just shoved willy-nilly all over the place.
Heck, even just seeing some of the stuff on vcoins makes me take pause.

 

Well, that certainly took long enough! He was doing this for 40 years, and everybody even vaguely interested in antiquities -- except, it seems, his customers -- knew all about it. Although I don't think people knew that he was manufacturing his fakes right there in the back rooms. Probably a lot easier than smuggling genuine ones into the country.

 

What goes around comes around...

 

Is he on Vcoins?

 

No. Never has been.

 

Karma

 

No just seeing some of the "artifacts" on there. Some of it seems rather questionable.

 

Good.

 

I'm surprised it took so long to get this crook out of the market. People have been raising red flags on him for many, many years, to no avail. I wonder how quickly places like Ebay, Vcoins, and Catawiki are going to fill up with people trying to dump their worthless "artifacts".

 

You shouldn't lump vcoins together with Ebay.

VCoins requires references to join and enforces a code of conduct. Sure, there are issues like fake patinas and sellers inflating prices, but the overwhelming percentage of their coins are genuine. If you do your research and know your targets it's a very safe place to shop.

This contrasts with EBay, which is a sea of trash and fakes, littered with a handful of reputable dealers.

 

It’s about time!

when my brother started to get into artifacts, I’m so glad that we found out early on to stay clear of this guy. I feel so bad for the people that bought from him.

Erin

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

I agree about coins, but I'm not quite as confident about the antiquities available through V-Coins. For example, there's a dealer located in Dubai who always seems to have dozens of Egyptian ushabtis for sale in what I would call a low-to-medium price range (say, $400-$2,000). They all look basically like ushabtis are supposed to look, and I have no specific knowledge that this dealer sells fake antiquities -- only that he's rather notorious for the artificial "desert patina" he applies to certain coins -- but I'd be a bit hesitant to buy one of them without having an expert look at it first. Especially because, authenticity concerns aside, I can't help wondering where he gets such a continuous and regular supply of ushabtis to sell, given that they aren't exactly indigenous to Dubai, and it's been illegal for years to export antiquities from Egypt. I do realize that huge numbers were taken out of or exported from Egypt when it was legal to do so -- the Cairo Museum even used to sell genuine antiquities in its gift shop! -- but I still wonder.

The Egyptian "antiquities" for sale on Ebay, by the way, tend to be so ridiculously fake-looking that they make Sadigh's products look like genuine masterpieces by contrast. It's hard to imagine that they fool anyone, but they do.

 

Yes. Since this is a coins forum, though, I was only addressing the coins for sale.

What scares me the most about this is how long it took the authorities to take Sadigh down. People in the know have been aware of this guy's fakes for decades. Two years ago a museum had to shut down an exhibition because the majority of artifacts, purchased from him, were fakes. Here's the Sadigh article outside of a pay wall.

Authorities were tipped off to Sadigh's enterprise when other dealers they were investigating for selling looted antiquities asked why “the guy selling all the fakes” was being ignored, Matthews Bogdanos, the head of the DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit, told the Times.

So, despite all this, authorities were completely unaware of him. This just boggles the mind. You almost wonder if a portion of the income was going to bribes, as by any piece of sanity he should have been shut down decades ago.

 

I am quite sure that many complaints were filed with the New York City consumer protection authorities over the decades he was operating. But it seems that no steps were ever taken to shut him down. It's hard to believe that nobody ever notified the DA's office before this. One way he may have avoided criminal scrutiny is that when customers complained to him, he always (according to what I've read) refunded their money, no questions asked.

 

Maybe, but then look at all the jewelry stores in NYC. There's a ton of stores selling fakes and/or overgraded stones there. It's so bad that as a general rule I don't buy anything there. I'm also into photography and it's well known to stay away from any NYC store outside of B&H and Adorama.

These stores have been getting away with it forever. I can't imagine the authorities don't know. I can imagine money flowing under the table to ensure they don't care.

 

In terms of camera/photography stores, that's an issue of stores in tourist areas being massively overpriced, rather than of authenticity, right?

As for the jewelry/diamond stores, do those places on 47th Street give refunds readily? I doubt it.

 

Not as much to tourists. There are a number of camera stores, primarily in Brooklyn, that have an online presence. Many sell on EBay, while others have their own sites. There are many different scams. One common practice is someone sees a camera that's normally $1000 for $800 and buys it. They then call and either say that "the battery is optional and costs $300" or they heavily push the buyer to add lots of junk to inflate the price.

Other scams include sending used/defective equipment, selling grey market goods (not valid under warranty), or not even sending the item.

Some stores get shut down, but then just reappear under a different name. Similar to our fake coin lists, there are web sites listing the current scammers. It seems no one ever goes to jail.

Most people who have been in photography for some time know to stay clear of anything not named "B&H" or "Adorama" with a NYC address, but newbies fall prey all the time.