By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
Celebrity antiques expert, famed for his appearances on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow,” says a buyer scammed his antique shop out of $100,000.
As reported by the NY Post, Leigh Keno, who has been a fixture on the PBS show with his twin brother Leslie, is suing to recover the cash he says a woman scammed his auction house out of. Keno claims that the woman seemed legitimate when she made several purchases ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 for items. “The checks didn’t bounce,” he said, regarding the first purchases.
The buyer, Chihyu Lu also nicknamed Grace Lu, then began a shopping spree, purchasing a lengthy list of Asian furniture and decorative pieces, as per Keno. Her bill came out to $178,450, and Keno said he let her take the items when she paid a small fraction and promised to pay the balance later. “I kick myself that I allowed it to happen,” said Keno, who runs Keno Auctions on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “I’ve been in the business my entire life. This is the first time that this has happened.”
The lawsuit, which was filed by the auction house in 2021 in Manhattan state Supreme Court, says that Lu took some 40 pieces in July 2020, paying $45,000 but then refused to pay the balance of $133,450. Lu claims that she tried to resell some of the items and was told they appeared to be “later copies,” as per court papers. Keno replied that he did not represent the items as antiques from any particular time period. Lu later came to Keno’s January 2022 auction, and bid under a different name, buying up almost half of the sale, Keno said. He said his staff realized it was the same person and told her she would need to pay the entire bill and then she never replied.
Keno said he is now making the story public because he heard that Lu was allegedly continuing her antics, to dupe other auction houses. The Post’s review of documents revealed that Lu has bid on over $230,000 worth of treasures sold by various auction houses, through the Live Auctioneers websites since 2020, but failed to complete the transactions. Winning an item at an auction is considered a binding agreement to purchase the item, said David Killen, who runs a namesake auction house in Chelsea. He told The Post that last month, Lu was the winning bidder on about $13,000 in Asian pieces but didn’t initially want to pay for the goods or pick them up.
Lu did not immediately reply to the Post’s requests for comment.
