POLK AUCTION COMPANY

GREAT AUCTION HOUSE

bid with confidence

I won a cast iron bust of Peter The Great from this auction (which they marketed, by the way as bust of Apollo). Was very happy to get it for $350. Received invoice from auction house and shipping company contact. However, when called to make a payment, was told that they sold the bust to someone else. Filed the complaint with LiveAuctioneers and was told that someone from the auction house would call me. Later received a call from a person affiliated with the auction who told me that they sold the bust to someone on the floor, to the person who they knew. He also told me that the person who ended up with my item really wanted it and would have paid any amount of money for it even if bidding went much higher than my maximum bid (I put $625, and the person on the floor supposedly bought it for $450, but my bid was not posted due to internet glitch). Many questions arise: if you know that it is Peter The Great-why do you market it as Apollo? Don’t you want people who search Peter related items to be able to bid and pay a top dollar? Don’t you have fiduciary duty to the seller? At the end everybody lost-the seller, who didn’t get fair amount of money, me, because I never got my item.. The only person who benefited is the friend of the auction house who ended up with the piece. If that is not suspicious-I don’t know what is. I’ve been buying and selling at 1tier international auctions, at smaller local auctions, but have never seen anything like this. Terrible.