New York - In a captivating legal case currently being adjudicated in the French justice system, questions are being asked about whether individuals who've sold antiques or artworks later determined to have a significantly higher value can seek additional compensation over and above the original sale amount. The case revolves around an unnamed eighty-one year old woman and her eighty-eight year old husband, who stumbled upon an African mask while clearing out their vacation home.

As the couple sorted through their belongings, most of which were destined for a garage sale, they decided to put aside an African mask and sold it to a local antiques dealer for a seemingly modest sum of €150, equivalent to approximately $157, in September 2021.
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However, several months later, while perusing their local newspaper, the couple was taken aback by the revelation that their once-unassuming mask had just fetched a staggering €4.2 million (approximately $4.4 million) at an auction in Montpellier for African art. From the auction records it was revealed that the mask was in fact an especially rare example of a Fang mask used in certain secret African rituals, and came with a fascinating history, having been brought back from Gabon by the husband's grandfather, a colonial governor in Africa at the beginning of the twentieth-century.

With a growing sense of injustice, the elderly couple decided to take legal action against the antiques dealer who had purchased the mask from them. The core of their argument centered on the suspicion that the dealer had a much better understanding of the mask's true worth when he acquired it. The antiques dealer, for his part, did not put the mask on display in his shop. Instead, he sought appraisals from two auction houses, Drouot Estimation and Fauve Paris, which estimated the mask's value to be around €100–€120 and €400–€600, respectively.

However, the dealer's decision to seek a third opinion from a specialized auction of African objects in Montpellier was a game-changer. After subjecting the mask to carbon-14 dating and mass spectrometry analysis, it was dated to the 19th century. An ethnologist's expert appraisal revealed its use in purification rites by the Ngil society, a secretive group within the Fang ethnic community in Gabon until the 1920s. The auction house subsequently placed the mask for sale with an estimated value of between €300,000 and €400,000, ultimately selling it for a remarkable €4.2 million.

​NOTE: For readers seeking more information about the Asheford Institute Of Antiques distance-learning program on professional-level appraising, the study of antiques, collectibles, vintage and mid-century modern, please click here to visit the school's Home Page. 

Should you have additional questions about the Asheford program, you can also write to the school at: info@asheford.com or call the Registrar's Office toll-free at: 1-877-444-4508.

New York - While tech giants and government officials may currently be debating Artificial Intelligence's (AI) largescale use and application amongst the world's citizenry, for people like Cameron Newley, it's AI's influence on smaller more niche related industries, such as the decorative arts, that has him contemplating some potentially significant marketplace changes that could result from this evolving technology. As a longtime researcher and technical collaborator who's worked within the field of Artificial Intelligence for over ten years, Newley says he has a unique perspective on how this burgeoning technology may end up affecting the antique and vintage community in years to come. While his area of academic credentials upon first glance may appear to lie in more scientific pursuits, Newley acknowledges that his real joy and passion comes from collecting and selling antiques; especially Victorian oils and watercolors along with early Art Nouveau posters. "I'm a collector at heart," he says, "my family was in the business, so dabbling in antiques and selling on-the-side has always come naturally to me." However, Newley also concedes that he's put some considerable time into analyzing the potential relationship between AI and the decorative arts over the past few years, as a natural twinning of his professional and personal interests. "There's no question that Artificial Intelligence is going to revolutionize the antique and vintage industry in various ways," says Newley, "from reshaping the way collectors, sellers, and enthusiasts interact with historical artifacts, to profound effects impacting authenticity assessments, pricing, market accessibility, and even conservation efforts."