TV ANTIQUES EXPERT FALLS FOR OLDEST TRICK IN BOOK!
Now he’s suing over lost treasures
EXPERTS on Antiques Roadshow are supposed to recognize the real McCoy from fakes, but red-faced auctioneer Leigh Keno insists he got scammed out of a whopping $100,000 in treasures.
New Yorker Leigh — a regular on the hit PBS antiques show — says he failed to spot a con artist who cleverly wormed her way into his confidence at Upper East Side Keno Auctions, which he runs with twin Leslie. The gal then made off with a bundle, he says.
“I kick myself that I allowed it to happen,” he confesses. “I’ve been in the business my entire life. This is the first
time that this has happened.”
Now he’s suing Grace Lu, a.k.a. Chihyu Lu, who he says first won his confidence by buying $5,000 to $10,000 worth of items over a period of time with checks that “didn’t bounce.”
Finally in July 2020, she made a big buy — $178,450 worth of 40 Asian items
including a bronze “libation” cup with beast handle, a watercolor of a cat and a dragon-carved cabinet, Leigh says.
Leigh claims he let his regular customer give him $45,000 and take the items home on a promise to pay the outstanding $133,450 bill later, but instead she stiffed him, according to his lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Lu claims when she tried to resell some items purchased from Leigh, she was told they were copies, not originals!