One of my favorite things to do over lunch is surf eBay looking at 'who' is selling 'what' in the category of antiquities. After about 10 minutes, my blood-pressure seriously elevated, I have to force myself to stop, as I simply cannot stand seeing another awful fake being misrepresented as ancient.

To say there are fakes sold on eBay is tantamount to saying there are grains of sand in the desert. The worst category has to be EGYPTIAN, with at least 4 or 5 major sellers selling fakes exclusively, while there are many others selling a mix of fakes and quasi-ancient. Of those selling fakes on eBay, here are the worst of the worst sellers - ancientgr4, back_street_bazaar, egyptianseller, Egyptian.deals, kingofdesert, lost_civ, Byblosantiques, olinad_limag1 and now morezmore. These guys change user names like most of us change socks, so just because you don't see a name listed here doesn't mean the seller you are looking at is honest... or hasn't been caught previously and now selling under a new name! Once they get a few negative feedbacks under one name, they dump that name and a new name emerges....

To give you a couple prime examples:

1) One I just looked at, after spending no more than 10 seconds on the Egyptian area of eBay, lost_civ is selling a "Rare Huge Ancient Egypian Tutankhamun SandStone Statue." Let me tell you this - as a dealer who was in the process of trying to acquire a truly ancient King Tut statue about 3 months ago (it was a 3"H piece with a price tag of about $3.5 million), I can tell you without hesitation that an authentic King Tut stone piece does not sell on eBay, nor does it get sold with an opening price of $.99. Yet, some poor schmuck is surfing eBay, finds this 'gem' thinking it must be a steal and spends a thousand bucks for a piece that's worth maybe $25.00 (what you would pay for a tourist piece at a Cairo bazaar).

2) The next example was a piece brought into our gallery by a local client who purchased an "ancient stone container" from byblosantiques in Lebanon. He wanted me to review it to see if it was actually ancient. The piece was quite attractive and might have actually been ancient... had the ancient Egyptians used plastic in their manufacturing process. The piece was mold-made of plastic, covered in dirt to hide this small problem!! My client reported this back to byblosantiques, and byblosantiques was quick to refund his money. Does this change the fact that the piece was not ancient? Of course not, it's just that byblosantiques realizes that most of his buyers are not going to return the fake pieces, therefore if he refunds money promptly to those who do complain, his feedback remains in near-perfect order! Perfect feedback for a seller of fakes...

It's no secret that people are ripping people off on eBay - and this isn't just happening in Antiquities/Egyptian. To keep you thinking straight/help you recognize perhaps the not-so-obvious, here are my tips for spotting fakes on eBay. No matter what you may think about 'this piece' or that in going thru these tips, recognize that 95% of what is offered on eBay is a pure, complete, fraud!

Here are my tips for identifying the thieves on eBay:

1) Any auction listings by the aforementioned eBay sellers are fake pieces. Period, end of discussion!
2) Any ancient Egyptian auction where the seller is located in Egypt is certainly a fake - it is illegal for them to sell authentic and they know this. Plus, there is a huge source for tourist fake pieces that these sellers can buy for a few dollars and sell for several hundred! Determine where the seller is located. If they are in Egypt, or the Middle East, be very, very careful!
3) Any auction where the payment method is WESTERN UNION - major red flag! Hard to trace and no chance of ever getting your funds back.
4) Any auction listing for ancient Egyptian that states an item's age as 'suggestive' is a clear indication that the seller is flat out selling a fake - period!
5) If the seller uses PRIVATE AUCTIONS - this is a major red flag! Although some fairly reputatable sellers use private auctions, I always wonder why are so afraid of letting others view their bidders. If you have nothing to hide, why use a private auction format?
6) If the seller uses PRIVATE FEEDBACK (even if their positive feedback is 100%) - this an almost sure sign they are selling fakes! Again, why hide your feedback if you have nothing to hide? Like private auctions, this is their attempt to keep the bidders names from view - because these sellers do not want anyone emailing them telling them the items that they're bidding on are fake.
7) If the seller gives very long excuses for why they can't give a guarantee (like lack of carbon dating, etc.), the item is probably a fake! Any reputable dealer in ancient art should stand behind their products 100% - if they aren't willing to guarantee their items, why should you trust them to sell you anything that is authentic, or worse, have them treat you fairly should you want to return the piece or question its authenticity?
8) If the auction starts at $.01 with no reserve -- and the seller states that the piece is "priceless" - probably a fake! Think about it, would you sell a truly priceless item on eBay? Even if you did, would you start the listing at $0.01 with no reserve? Yes, this happens all the time - but c'mon, does it make any sense?
9) If a seller says they are obtaining these 'ancient' items directly from the diggers, stop right there! Besides the fact that it is illegal in almost all countries to sell freshly-dug artifacts abroad, these items are very likely fake. If you buy items that come directly from diggers, let me advise you of one important thing - if the item(s) are indeed freshly-dug and you purchase them as such, you can be subject to prosecution for federal crimes both here in the USA and abroad! This is true for all Middle Eastern countries, as well as items from Peru, Europe, Mexico, and anywhere else in the world that ancient artifacts are found.
10) If a piece looks too good to be true - probably a fake! Did you know that as many as 90% of all Egyptian antiquities were made in the last 10 years? Don't just trust your eyes/ pictures - read the entire listing from start to finish. Many sellers will claim to state that the item is a replica once, but the listing and the title clearly shout ancient.
11) Before you buy anything on eBay, contact a knowledgeable dealer in ancient art to get a second opinion. I will be more than happy to provide you with email addresses of several reputable dealers to get good advice - and this advice is free! Like me, these dealers simply hate sellers of fakes and want only to help you from being cheated! The following dealers can always be counted on for their knowledge and honest opinions:
- Howard Rose at Arte Primitivo - arteprimitivo@arteprimitivo.com
- Howie Nowes at Howie Nowes Ancient Art - howard.nowes@verizon.net
- Bob Dodge (me) at Artemis Gallery Ancient Art - realancientart@aol.com
12) Take a careful look at the item you are looking to buy and do a bit of research on the internet to see if there's anything that resembles this item. Most fakes are very easy to discern if you just spend a wee bit of time doing careful research. If you have questions about any item, please email me for an honest and free opinion. I hate fakes and have made it my goal to wipe out sellers who sell this junk - eBay being my prime target.

OK, so now you've got this list of tips in hand, but I think you also need to 'see' how blatant the fakes really are, so I've included some pictures here for you to examine so you can 'see' some of the things that set these bad fakes apart from authentic pieces. What surprises me about the folks who bid on this stuff on eBay (often at prices in excess of $1000!) is that they are fooled by things that aren't even good fakes - they are bidding on pieces sold at tourist bazaars in Cairo or other tourist hot-spots across Egypt and the Middle-East. The quality is usually quite crude and if glyphs are employed, they are almost always gibberish -- not even good attempts at using authentic hieroglyphic characters, Plaster of Paris is usually substituted for stone (much too hard to work with at these volumes), plus the features are simply amateurish. Also, if you read the listings, sellers of fakes love to attribute names of the most famous pharaohs to their "works of art" - most notably King Tut, Amenhotep, Hathshepsut, and Ramses II being the usual favorites. If, by chance, you are one of those folks who buys ancient art on eBay, please study these pictures in great detail and compare theme to truly authentic ancient pieces you might happen to see at one of the major auction houses (e.g., Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonham's or Arte Primitivo), at a gallery like Royal Athena (www.royalathena.com), or on exhibition at one of the major museums throughout the world. Trust me, once you know what you're really looking at, the differences are usually easy to spot. After going through these pictures and viewing what's right and what's wrong, if you still don't 'see' the differences, I would wholeheartedly suggest that you start collecting/ buying art in a different area, because you will get taken advantage of.

If you have any questions, or need additional assistance with regard to identifying fakes, please feel free to contact me - I will be more than happy to help you.

Bob Dodge Owner/Partner http://www.artemisgallery.com

About the Author

Owner/partner, Artemis Gallery Ancient Art, www.artemisgallery.com, online gallery specializing in the sale of guaranteed-authentic antiquities and artifacts from the major cultures of ancient times - Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Egyptian, Pre-Columbian, among many others. Worldwide clientele, excellent trade references. Selling online since 1996.