All that glitters is not gold.
A top Russian coins and medals dealer learned the age-old truism when he was duped by a Manhattan auction house into buying a medallion studded with diamonds that was actually covered in worthless glass and lead crystals, according to his $2.6 million fraud lawsuit.
Dmitry Markov bid on what he thought was an extremely rare military medal for chivalry from the Russian empire at a Stack’s Bowers auction at the ritzy Le Parker-Meridian Hotel in January 2008.
He won the piece, called The Order of St. Alexander-Nevsky, for $600,000 on behalf of a client.
Markov put down the six-figure bid after reading in the auction catalog that the medal was ‘framed in ‘brilliants,’ a term commonly used in the auction industry to mean diamonds,” he says in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit filed Monday.
He later discovered that the medallion was a more common version.
The medal “was issued in several versions, with diamonds and without,” Markov, 55, explains in court papers.
“The version containing diamonds is extremely rare and of much higher historical significance — worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more than its non-diamond counterpart,” the dealer adds.
He claims the W. 57th Street auction house “strung him along for over a half a year with false representations that they would ‘resolve the issue shortly.’”
Markov alleges that the delay was a ruse “in hopes of baiting him until the statue of limitations expired on his claims.”
He wants to be recouped for the cost of the medal plus $2 million for damage to his professional reputation. His attorney, Michael C. Barrows, declined to comment.
Brian Kenderlla, president of Stack’s Bowers Galleries said, “We just received the lawsuit today. We’re looking into it.” He added, “This auction was not conducted by our company or any affiliate of our company. We believe Mr. Markov is suing the wrong company.”