ATLANTA — A Florida multimillionaire spent years collecting what he thought was quite the art collection. Turns out, it was all a sham.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court last week, he accuses his lifelong friend, an Atlanta auctioneer, of selling him $20 million in counterfeit artworks.
The lawsuit says Allan Baitcher and his company, Peachtree Antiques, falsified authentication reports for more than 800 pieces of artwork.
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Many of those pieces came from high-profile artists like Salvador Dalí, Jackson Pollock, Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat and many more.
It accuses Baitcher of creating several fake websites, email addresses and phone numbers for authenticators to verify the legitimacy of the artwork being sold. But none of those people existed.
The lawsuit says that Baitcher and the victim knew each other since they were toddlers, and Baitcher exploited their relationship to take advantage of the multimillionaire.
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If the pieces of artwork had been legitimate, the lawsuit says they would have been worth approximately $200 million.
The lawsuit seeks to get full restitution from Baitcher and his company for the value of the artwork, as well as damages and interest.
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