Regarding the allegations of auction misconduct and unpaid invoices that led to lawsuits, Leslie & Leigh Keno Auctions is involved. So let’s delve deeper into the narrative of Leigh Keno Auctions that are described below:

Leigh Keno Auctions: Challenges at Auction Faced by Antique Experts

Since they were very young, they have had their own business. Leslie & Leigh Keno Auctions grew up in a household of vintage enthusiasts. In addition to managing an art consultancy firm, a furniture line, and an auction house in Manhattan, they have been involved in several other businesses.

Due to their involvement in auctions, the brothers have recently run into legal issues. They competed with one another in various auctions, which led to inflated prices for the objects they won. The auction houses in New Orleans and Philadelphia sued them for failing to pay bills totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars after they failed to take ownership of these objects.

The brothers’ attorney responded to the claims by claiming that the bidding occurrences were caused by a brief liquidity problem, which is normal in the auction industry. They asserted that their goal was to unearth undiscovered riches and unusual provenance for the objects they sought.

The Kenos have made partial payments despite their legal issues and hope to quickly pay off the remaining debt. They talked about their involvement in various projects and their plans to sell a sizable collection that they described as their own “National Treasure.”

As the smaller auction firms involved have never had such a large amount of unpaid invoices, outstanding debts have presented challenges. The Keno brothers, though, are respected in their industry and are passionate about what they do.

The Kenos are also well-known for offering their skills on the television program “Antiques Roadshow,” where they were well-liked for their amiable dispositions and knowledge. The producer of the show is excited to have them continue to be a part of the show and hopes that whatever issues they are having will go away.

Leigh Keno Auctions: Allegations of Auction Misconduct and Non-Payment

Leslie and Leigh Keno are well-known authorities on Americana and vintage cars. For all 20 seasons of the well-known PBS program “Antiques Roadshow,” they appeared as famous appraisers. The twins, however, have most recently been the target of complaints and legal action regarding their behavior at auctions.

According to the first case, which was brought by New Orleans Auctions Galleries, the Keno brothers participated in auction fraud by bidding against one another to increase the cost of objects. Using one brother’s phone bid and the other’s online bid, they competed against one another roughly 50 times for a Turkish Angora carpet on one occasion.

The carpet had a reserve price of $800, but after all other bids withdrew, it was ultimately sold to Leslie for $14,500. In two further instances, the same bidding strategy was used for other items, resulting in purchase costs that were much higher than the low estimates for those items. For the 244 items they purchased at this auction, the brothers claimed owe a total of $400,000 in debt.

The Keno twins have also been sued by Kamelot Auctions in Philadelphia for failing to pay $200,000 for 89 items they bought at an auction in May.

The New Orleans bid confusion, according to the twins, was an honest misinterpretation. They acknowledged their mistake and begged for pardon in an email to the auction business because of the significant amount of products they had bought.

Their attorney, Brad Harrigan, indicated that the reason for the non-payment was a brief liquidity issue, which he believed was not unusual in the auction sector. He stated that the brothers had already paid $70,000 of the New Orleans debt and intended to pay the balance shortly. The Philadelphia case was also successfully resolved.

Despite these legal issues, the Keno brothers stressed their skills as experts and investigators in the antiquities industry, looking for undiscovered gems and distinctive provenance for each item they deal in. They continue to give frequent lectures, have their furniture line, and appear on “Antiques Roadshow.”

The twins said they are engaging in several initiatives at the moment and anticipate paying off their loans soon in a joint email statement to the press reports.

You’ll have to wait and watch how these legal matters are properly addressed, as well as how they might affect the Keno twins’ standing as authorities in the antiquities and auction business.

Leigh Keno Auctions Controversy: Accusations of Fraud and Unpaid Liabilities

Leslie and Leigh Keno Auctions, the affable hosts of Antiques Roadshow, are renowned for their chic aesthetic and love of Americana. However, the collectibles community has expressed concern about their most recent moves.

When the brothers competed with one another at auctions, raising prices to impossibly high levels, then failed to make payments for the objects, they were charged with auction fraud.

Selling fake goods and deceiving customers about a product’s validity are both crimes. However, auctioneers are permitted to offer imitations or “knockoffs” of branded goods as long as the buyer is made aware of this and understands they are not buying a real branded item.

When they were sued for “auction misconduct” that led to excessively high prices for auction objects, their reputation for honesty, developed over decades of work with prestigious auction houses, was called into question.

The litigation and unpaid invoices have damaged the Kenos’ once-impressive reputations, despite their claims that it was all a misunderstanding and that they became overexcited during the auction.

The claims of fraudulent bidding continue, even though they settled one lawsuit with another auction firm. Leigh Keno Auctions responded by stating in a joint email that they were prepared to pay increased rates for objects due to their proficiency in looking for hidden riches and examining unusual provenance.

Although the Leigh Keno Auctions have made an effort to minimize the matter, their actions have raised questions about their character and left the fine collectibles world with unanswered questions.

Leigh Keno Auctions: Celebrity Auction House Faces $100,000 Scam

A well-known celebrity antiques appraiser who has appeared on “Antiques Roadshow” claims a lady defrauded his auction company of more than $100,000. He is filing a lawsuit to get the money back.

Leigh Keno Auctions, who together with his twin brother Leslie has long been a feature on the PBS TV program, said that the buyer appeared legitimate since she regularly made purchases between $5,000 and $10,000 in value and always paid the bill. He declared, “The checks didn’t bounce.”

The purchaser, whose name is Grace Lu but who looks to be Chihyu Lu, then went shopping for a variety of Asian furniture and ornaments, including a bronze “libation” cup with a beast handle, a watercolor painting of a cat, and a display cabinet with carved dragons, according to Keno.

She totaled up $178,450 in products, which Keno claimed he allowed her to take on the condition that she would pay him later.

According to Keno, who owns Keno Auctions on the Upper East Side, “He kicks himself for allowing it to happen.” All of his life had been spent in the industry. There has never been anything like this before.

In July 2020, Lu seized roughly 40 items, paid $45,000, and then refused to pay the remaining balance of $133,450, according to a complaint the auction business brought against Lu in Manhattan state supreme court in 2021.

In court documents, Lu states that when she sought to resale some of the products, she was informed that they seemed to be “later copies.”

The pieces, according to Keno, were not advertised as being from a specific age or as antiques, and Lu had spent several weeks viewing them in his shop before making a purchase.

Later, in January 2022, Lu made a bid at one of Keno’s auctions under a new identity, purchasing over half of the sale, according to Keno. He claimed that after realizing it was the same person, his employees told her to pay the full amount due and never heard back.

Keno claimed that the reason he was speaking out was because Lu was reportedly conniving with other auction firms.

According to records examined by The Post, she placed bids on items valued at more than $230,000 that were being sold by several auction houses through the Live Auctioneers websites since 2020 but never followed through with the purchases.

David Killen, who owns an identical auction house in Chelsea, is one of the people she is accused of bilking. According to him, Lu won a month ago’s auction for around $13,000 worth of Asian items, but he declined to pay for them or pick them up. He then told The Post that Lu was the successful bidder.

The act of winning a product at an auction is seen as a binding contract to purchase it, he explained.

If put up for sale again, according to Killen, they would lose value.

Because the individual who purchased it never made a payment, “people assume there must be a problem with it,” he said. It has a “bad smell,” as we would say in the business.

When he informed Lu that another bidder was prepared to shell out thousands of dollars for the $900 “sword leg” table she won, Killen claimed he finally convinced Lu to pick up and pay for her stuff this week. She allegedly hurried inside to collect it and pay her bill, according to him. When contacted for comment, Lu did not respond right away.

Keno Auctions: A Brief Overview

Leigh Keno, an acclaimed antiquities trader, started Keno Auctions in 2009; it claims to be a full-service auction house in New York City.

Keno Auctions displays that it has grown to be well-liked by collectors, dealers, and enthusiasts looking for distinctive and priceless items because of its focus on fine and decorative art, as well as antiques and collectibles.

Leigh Keno, an internationally recognized television personality and antiques expert who has been on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” and presented his series “Buried Treasure” on FOX, started Keno Auctions in 2009.

Leslie & Leigh Auctions (Keno Auction): A Brief Overview

The Keno family’s story began in Herkimer County, New York, where twin sons were born to antique traders Norma and Ronald Keno. Leigh Keno Auctions and his younger brother were born as twins in the quaint New York village of Mohawk.

The twins’ extraordinary journey began when Leigh Keno Auctions, the older of the two, entered the world 13 minutes before his brother. The lads were surrounded by the beauty and history of many items and treasures as they grew up in a family of antique collectors.

Conclusion

As a result of severe allegations of auction malpractice and unpaid liabilities, Leigh Keno Auctions, the company run by renowned antiquities authority Leigh Keno Auctions, has come under fire.

The Keno brothers (Leigh Keno Auctions) are accused of engaging in auction fraud by bidding against one another to artificially boost the cost of the items they won. Due to this activity, Philadelphia and New Orleans auction houses filed various lawsuits seeking payment for unpaid invoices totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A momentary liquidity issue, which is frequent in the auction market, was to blame for the bidding episodes, according to the defense attorney for the Kenos. The Keno brothers (Leigh Keno Auctions) have vowed to settle the remaining debts and carry on working in the antiquities and auction (Leigh Keno Auctions) industry despite the legal concerns and unpaid bills.

Concerns have been expressed regarding the brothers’ credibility as authorities in the collectibles industry as a result of the situation surrounding Leigh Keno Auctions. A further fraud case involving a buyer who allegedly duped the auction business of over $100,000 has also been alleged.

The case is still unsolved as of right now, and it’s unclear how the legal issues will be handled or how they’ll affect the careers of the Keno twins (Leigh Keno Auctions) as antiques experts and “Antiques Roadshow” TV hosts.