Tribal Arts

Fake Pre-Columbian Bowl

Appraisal: Fake Pre-Columbian Bowl

Transcript

GUEST: I bought this piece in 2002 in a gallery in Seattle. I've spent the last 30 years or so going to South America, particularly the Andean countries, and so I recognized it, sort of the design anyway, from museums that I'd been to, and so I decided just to go ahead and buy it.

APPRAISER: I assume that what you'd like to find out is...

GUEST: If it is real, whether or not it represents the Tairona people, which is in the northern part of Colombia.

APPRAISER: Okay, the first thing we have is this authentication, which here it's in Spanish, and over there is the English translation. Now, there's a couple of things that really caught my eye on this. First of all, the date, which is down here, was 400 B.C. to 1500 A.D., so almost 2,000 year span, and the individual that did the authenticity is either part of the archaeological apparatus of the Colombian government or a private individual. Did you indicate what you paid

for it?

GUEST: I paid $1,800 for it.

APPRAISER: $1,800, okay. In looking at this, looking at the clay, looking at the general configuration, I feel quite certain it was made in the mountains in Tairona. We have four animals on the rim, and they're well modeled, beautifully executed.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And here on the inside, we have a human figure, which you can also see up here. Now, when we think about the authenticity of a pre-Columbian piece, I can tell you this is very atypical to have these four animals up on the rim.

GUEST: I wondered that.

APPRAISER: It's very unusual to have the figure down inside that we see here. The other thing...(tapping)

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: You hear I tap that?

GUEST: Right. Right.

APPRAISER: When you hear that, it's a very high ring. When these things are fired, they're fired in pit kilns.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Where they put the coals in, and there's only a certain amount of temperature that they can create, so it's a low fired process. When you bang on it like this with a ring, you get a high ring.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Unfortunately, I think that means we've got an electric kiln.

GUEST: I wondered that.

APPRAISER: It would seem to be too perfect. You're exactly right. And so examining all the documentation in this, we have to conclude that this piece is not authentic.

GUEST: I wondered, great.

APPRAISER: So I know you're out $1,800 and that's not a pleasant thing for anybody, and so I'm sorry about that. I can tell you that the value of this now, this would be on a retail basis, would be more in the $200 to $300 range on the decorative market. If this thing were real, I mean, this would be so rare and so unusual, I would appraise this between $6,000 and $8,000.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Appraiser

John Buxton

APPRAISED VALUE (2015)

$200 - $300 Retail

Event

Spokane, WA (2015)

Theme

Cultural Art & Objects

Form

Tableware, Bowl

Appraiser Speciality

Tribal Arts

Material

Pottery & Porcelain, Clay

Update: January 11, 2016

Soon after this appraisal was taped in Spokane, the guest contacted ANTIQUES ROADSHOW with an update about the bowl he had purchased from a gallery in 2002. Appraiser John Buxton suspected the vessel was not a true Pre-Columbian piece. The guest related: "I contacted the downtown Seattle gallery after the ROADSHOW and despite the fact that I had purchased the pot 13 years ago, they took the pot and had it re-evaluated. This past week they refunded my full purchase price for store credit (which is what I had requested) because they stood behind the reputation of the gallery. I think this update would be good to include ... since it illustrates the importance of buying expensive pieces from a reputable and established gallery." We agree! Following up with that Seattle gallery, we found out the gallery had exhibited the bowl in 2002 for another dealer who had vouched for its authenticity. According to the the gallery, this dealer has so far refused to fully reimburse them (after they reimbursed our guest). "The bowl is permanently off the market," said a gallery representative.