A PERSON AGAINST THE MONOPOLY…

A “DESERT HERO” IN AMERICAN STYLE …

By Anatoly Vasserman

A monopoly, as well as any authority, contributes to corruption. Two giants, Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been reigning in the antiques market for too long. Sooner or later someone of infallible expertise will come and stop this unfairness forever. That person should have an idea of the kind of games played by these two jugglers: in fact, the unpleasant situation could only be exposed by colleagues but, who wants to take the risk, and spoil the reputation of a long-term partner?

Nobody knows for how many more years could the two Auction masters profit and fiddle with the consciousness of clients, and it is clear to me that the famous quotation by Abraham Lincoln is in danger of loosing its value:

“It is possible to deceive everybody for a long time; it is possible to deceive many people always; but it is impossible to deceive everybody always”.

These two manipulators have overestimated their own skillfulness. A modest owner of a rare and extremely beautiful carpet, a businessman from the Republic of Uzbekistan in Central Asia, Otabek Teshabekov, was informed that his carpets were just ordinary cheap stuff worth not more than a couple of thousand dollars in the best case and far from being a treasure in his hands.

That was not the end, and in order to confuse him more, a highly learned expert classified one of the carpets inventing a different name which doesn’t exist at all.

Otabek Teshabekov did not appear to be as naive as natives from the Asian desert should be according to some uneducated British people. First of all, he managed to prove that the carpet weaving school named by Christie’s expert is unknown to science and, in fact, does not exist at all. And then he started his own search for fair experts, capable to determine the origin and characteristics of any ancient work of art.

The search begun by Otabek was very long. Christie’s and Sotheby’s are occasionally involved in their work and know the majority of experts and serious critics around the world. They certainly control the antiques market and it is very difficult to find any colleagues ready to spoil their reputation, risking to loose profitable orders for ever.

Eventually good professionals, who value their own reputation more than possible incomes, were found after all. The carpet was appraised with a final value several times bigger than the official estimation given by Christie’s. Such difference in price cannot be considered as their grossest and only mistake and the plan of those art critics with dexterous hands became clear: to put the carpet on auction under an invented name and understated price, to be able to sell it again to cash in a fabulous benefit.

Unfortunately, the "respectable” auction house decided not to clear itself from dishonesty, but to protect its unrealistic reputation. Managers confirmed their initial estimations without an apology. Then a victim was declared a criminal. The book of Otabek Teshabekov «Christie’s Unmasked» which contained the basic episodes of his search for the truth and a clear picture of this unfortunate story including poetry, history, art descriptions, competitions, was named libelous. A judicial claim was filed against the author in the United Kingdom and predatory lawyers started to hunt for his bank accounts and other property.

The matter, certainly, lays not only questioning Christie’s imperfect reputation. Teshabekov doesn’t want someone else to get in the same trap again and for this important purpose it is necessary to break through the blockade of the monopolist companies. The Uzbek businessman founded a new auction house called “Muborak” and the two giants who have been controlling the world antiques market for a long time, try not to allow even the slightest crack in the wall, hiding true evidences of their unfair deals from millions of fans of antiques all over the world.

This legal struggle is now moving to America and we do not know if in the new world Otabek’s case will be supported enthusiastically by those who one day were also part of the Asian dessert sand...