Keno Brothers

[jacon4]

WOW!!! How the mighty have fallen! Although i wish no one bad times I am not going to say i am sad considering all the propaganda these 2 have been dishing the past 20 years. According to these reports, the brothers were bidding against each other AT THE SAME auction, driving up the costs of the object, if true, that's totally weird. Karma is a B***H!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/18/arts/design/keno-brothers-sued-by-2-auction-houses-say-they-made-a-mistake.html

http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/stories/new-orleans-auction-galleries-sues-kenos-for-unpaid-bill/5867

[ghopper1924]

Hmm, it looks like their scheme to pay off their debts requires that Peter be robbed so that Paul can be paid. I've never been able to make that work, and it sounds like they can't, either.

Anyway, I'll keep it positive by saying I like watching them and they've probably helped raise interest for antiques in a falling market. What kind of propaganda have they dished out over the past 20 years?

[jacon4]

"What kind of propaganda have they dished "

Well, for one thing that "original surface" nonsense they pedaled on AR for years which, the producers of AR were forced to retract.

"Hmm, it looks like their scheme to pay off their debts requires that Peter be robbed so that Paul can be paid"

Well, i would argue that whenever dealers or others in the trade resort to artificially raise the price of an object at auction/sale, it is really a scam because they are working off commission, the higher the sale price the higher commission you make. In the real world they call this fraud and it could be that the brothers might be in more than money problems if that is the case.

[ghopper1924]

It's sad to think they would undermine the trade - and their places in it - for this short term "gain."

[jacon4]

Well, you know how it goes, when people get desperate they sometimes do foolish stuff. If the auction house is correct that both brothers were bidding on the same object at the same time....... there is not a lot of other options left except fraud. They claim in article that they got "confused" but i find that hard to believe.

[cogar]

Now I personally take offense at the dastardly devious comments being touted about the Keno twins simply because I have known them, and both their parents (Ronnie & Norma), far far longer than any of you all have. Of course that was 40+ years ago when I was living in a big ole dilapidated farm house in upstate NY, Herkimer County, which Norma and the twins (and sometimes Ronnie) came to visit my then wife, Betty Jane. That’s when the twins were amassing their collection of “marked” stoneware.     

And the reason I take offense is because of the displayed exuberance to defame and/or convict the Keno brothers of dastardly, devious and/or dishonest acts before the “facts of the matter” are made public.
 
And as far as I am concerned, ….. and according to this excerpted commentary from the above cited “News article”, to wit:

“At that auction in April, for example, by New Orleans Auction Galleries, the Kenos bid against each other about 50 times for a Turkish Angora carpet, according to court papers filed by the auction house. One brother bid by phone, the other online. After a few opening bids, no one else competed for the rug.”

So, given the above News excerpt, the above Posted “dastardly devious comments” defy common sense thinking and read just like “Trump defaming Democrat agitprop”.

Read the above News excerpt AGAIN, and then tell me just why in ell Lee and Leslie would be INTENTIONALLY “bidding” against each other when they were the ONLY two (2) bidders that were “bidding” on the Angora carpet?   

Of course, the answer to my above “bidding” question is a simple one, because it is plainly stated in the above excerpt, for everyone to read, to wit:    “One brother bid by phone, the other online.”

Wintertime views of my use-to-be dilapidated farm house and its "overlook", .... sitting high upon a hilltop that over-looks the Mohawk Valley and Utica, NY, to wit:

[jacon4]

Cogar, what does "dastardly devious comments" got to do with the facts presented in news reports? And, i qualified my comments with " If true" and "If the auction house is correct". Bottom line is, none of this is good news no matter how you slice & dice it.

“At that auction in April, for example, by New Orleans Auction Galleries, the Kenos bid against each other about 50 times for a Turkish Angora carpet, according to court papers filed by the auction house. One brother bid by phone, the other online. After a few opening bids, no one else competed for the rug.”

Cogar, for all you know, the brothers were in the same room when bidding on that object and, i am not saying they were but the reason cited as "confused", i just  ain't buying. I was born at night but it wasn't last night!

[ghopper1924]

Beautiful farmhouse with a fantastic view!

[mart]

Confused ??  There are a few too many coincidences here !!  I would assume that the brothers at least talked to each other before the sale to prevent something like this !!  And that each had a buyer that wanted the same rug so bad they would overpay to that extent is hard to believe !!  Not that it happened only once but both brothers had customers that failed to pay and from the total amount owed,, had to be several buyers for both brothers !!  Unless they were partly buying for themselves and were depending on the commission earned to clear their own debt !!  And add to that that it happened more than once is a bit of  a stretch to believe !!  Or did I mis-read the article ??

[jacon4]

" I would assume that the brothers at least talked to each other before the sale to prevent something like this !! "

Although i do not know either brother except on TV, it's my understanding they were/are VERY close, "joined at the hip" is how one dealer who knows them well i talked with today put it.

"Or did I mis-read the article ??"

Nope, you didn't misread, no matter how much lipstick one smears on this pig, it's still a pig, hello?

[jacon4]

Perhaps the saddest part of all this is, it's another black mark on an industry that really can't afford them. The notion that people with less knowledge can't trust antiques people or get a fair shake in the marketplace is hurtful.

[jacon4]

UPDATE: In it's Breaking News section MAD published yesterday, another suit was filed 2 days ago. GEE WIZ! is all i got to say about this.

http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/news/sloans-kenyon-files-suit-against-leigh-keno-and-keno-inc/46

[ghopper1924]

Hey, I learned something today: "detrimental reliance."  Well, at this point I can only guess at the meaning of the term, but it sure sounds good!

Seriously, Jacon's right about this black mark on the Kenos and the industry. To the Roadshow viewers who care, the Kenos are the superstars of this little world. Personally, I always liked the personas they project and never would have thought them capable of letting things get so far out of hand.

Sadly, even here in the friendly U.S. midwest, my experience with antique dealers is that they are mostly dishonest, no matter how many times they slap you on the shoulder and laugh. I've given something like 10 dealers over the past 10 years a chance to be honest under sensitive circumstances, and 8 of them have failed. Now we've got the Kenos.  In this time of industry recession/depression, it's too bad that you could say of most antique dealers what used to be said of middle eastern rug merchants: "He'd throw a rock to a drowning man." As usual with life in the 21st century, there's no personal responsibility for the lack of ethics.

But this is nothing new, and the advice remains true: Let the buyer beware. I'd just wish that wasn't part of the fun and beauty of antiques.

[jacon4]

But this is nothing new, and the advice remains true: Let the buyer beware.

Yeah but, the problem with antiques is, most people are not willing to spend the time required to gain the knowledge to make an informed decision about quality, condition or price and, you couple that with dishonesty in the industry and BAM! it's bad news all around!
It's not like with a home purchase or groceries which are mandatory purchases, antiques are an optional item and it's pretty clear that most folks these days are optioning OUT!

[ghopper1924]

I know. We were all "newbies" at one point, and one of my points of interest was to see if a dealer would be honest with us in the short term in order to create a good relationship in the long term. Almost without exception, I found that dealers would rather rip us off to make a quick sale, overcharging us while lauding a particular item's condition and "rarity."

Out of the 5 local auctioneers I have bookmarked in my computer, only one is consistently honest. NONE of the dealers are.

So: Stupidity in developing client relationships based on respect and relationship longevity is virtually omnipresent, and lust for the short-term sale, especially if the dealer can make an extra $100 of the client's ignorance, is the rule. This business model is professional suicide, especially at the high end. Think of the contempt the industry must have for its clients! I would say that, for the most part, the people in the antiques industry get everything they deserve as one after another of them hangs up their "out of business" signs, but that leaves me with my love of the durn things, and the fact that you have to get them SOMEWHERE!