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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;all_fakes, post: 1873162, member: 55&quot;]Slightly off topic....but a few years ago I was at an auction, a very well-known auction house for native items, especially NW Coast.&nbsp; A collector had consigned them about 50-100 ancient stone items.&nbsp; One of their in-house appraisal experts told me in confidence that the auction house thought a lot of the items were questionable as to origin or authenticity, but that they had to list them as the consignor represented them. (And of course they, like all major auctioneers, had a detailed authenticity disclaimer in their auction terms).</p><p>It is notoriously hard to authenticate stone items without expensive scientific tests.&nbsp; Besides the possibility of outright forgery, it is very easy to think an item, such as a grinding stone, is 5,000 years old from Arizona, when it is really 150 years old, from Mexico.</p><p>I didn&#039;t bid on any of the stone items; I just don&#039;t know enough about stone....but I wouldn&#039;t be surprised if at least half of them were other than described by the person who had collected them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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