FABULOUS FORGERIES
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Baby Boomers are getting hit with a new cruel blow – most of their era’s treasured keepsakes they’ve hoarded for a rainy day could be worthless fakes.
Thousands of pieces of rock memorabilia – ranging from 1960s albums signed by the Beatles to Jimi Henrix’s personal guitars – are showing up en masse in auction markets in hopes owners can gain windfalls in the deepening recession.
Christie’s recently sold a Beatles item for $1.1 million – a drumhead featured on the album cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” But instead of finding such riches, the love generation increasingly is a victim of a phrase it invented decades ago: ripped off.
Experts say a runaway surge of fake and forged rock memorabilia is turning the industry upside down as unsuspecting owners try to cash in on what they originally believed was a good investment.
Even Tom Hanks’ wife is battling in court over an alleged and unauthenticated Beatles poster she ordered from a dealer as a birthday gift for Tom.
“This is a growing heartbreak that’s turning up more every day,” said Frank Caiazzo, a Christie’s consultant regarded as one of the world’s leading authenticators of Beatles signed memorabilia.
He says much of it was not actually signed by the Beatles as the band was largely inaccessible to autograph hunters after they arrived in the US in February 1964.
Some fakes being peddled for as much as $28,000 apiece are obvious, such as Jimi Hendrix’s signature on albums released in 1974 – although he died four years earlier in 1970.
“There’s a never-ending supply of non-authentic signed material,” said Caiazzo.
Clients and collectors happily pay for his trained eye and research database to learn whether a piece of rock history is real or fake.
“It’s the first investment a collector or buyer should make,” said Steve Cyrkin, editor of Autograph Magazine, which often outs fakers in the industry, particularly on Beatles artifacts.
“If it’s the Beatles, Frank Caiazzo is unquestionably the world’s top expert, and he can save a lot of suffering and loss,” Cyrkin said.
Caiazzo says the signatures of all classic rock artists are routinely being forged on album covers and sold as authentic.
The Beatles almostalways used ball-point pens to sign their autographs, most often on the rear side of album covers, said Caiazzo.
“Ninety percent of the Beatles material out there is fake.”
One top collector, Brian San Souci, said one clear sign of fake work is the lack of a documented history about a piece.
“If a dealer or seller refuses to tell you who owned a piece, and when it was signed and under what circumstances, it’s highly suspicious. The history of a piece is its main selling point – the more, the better, and in writing,” San Souci said.
Experts suggest three ways to spot fakes:
* Be wary of any company that has a frequent supply of rare signed items.
* Beware of sellers that cannot provide you with a verifiable origin for the product.
* Be wary of places that sell items far below true market value.