F+W cancels Atlantique City spring show, shifts focus to other ventures

Miles of aisles, each filled with antique treasures, are seen in this 2003 publicity photo for Atlantique City. Image courtesy Antique Trader and F+W Media.
Miles of aisles, each filled with antique treasures, are seen in this 2003 publicity photo for Atlantique City. Image courtesy Antique Trader and F+W Media.
Miles of aisles, each filled with antique treasures, are seen in this 2003 publicity photo for Atlantique City. Image courtesy Antique Trader and F+W Media.

IOLA, Wis. – For more than 23 years, collectors from all corners of the world made the journey to the southern New Jersey gambling mecca of Atlantic City to shop for antiques and collectibles at the Atlantique City mega-show. Those days – at least under the current ownership – now appear to have come to an end with the announcement from F+W Media, parent company of the show’s sponsor, Antique Trader, that the spring 2010 edition of the event has been canceled.

Citing the opportunity to further develop its online collectors marketplace and launch a Midwest-based antiques event, F+W Media issued a press release confirming its cancellation of the spring event, which would have taken place over the weekend of March 27-28, 2010. While the press release leaves questions regarding whether or not the show name and rights have been sold, or may be sold, there can be little question that F+W is moving in other directions within the antique-show sector.

“Given the uncertainty surrounding the current economic environment, we believe it’s in our best interest not to produce the Atlantique City event next year and to notify the antiques and collectibles community of our decision now,” said David Blansfield, President, F+W Media. “The resources within our Antiques & Collectibles team will instead focus on new opportunities within our changing marketplace, and we’ll engage with the community about these new initiatives immediately.”

“There are immediate opportunities for us to produce events in the Midwest, closer to our core communities, as well as to continue to develop…our antiques and collectibles community online,” Blansfield added. “Our focus will shift to organically growing these new businesses.”

Key initiatives include the launch of an antiques and collectibles show at the Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet, with a July 8-11, 2010 debut. The Iola car show and swap meet regularly attracts nearly 100,000 attendees annually. Additionally, F+W plans to develop its online collector marketplace and expand its Antique Trader print and online editions.

“Our goal is to better serve both buyers and sellers and all enthusiasts moving forward,” Antique Trader Publisher and Editorial Director Dianne Wheeler. “New opportunities are being created every day to ensure F+W Media’s family of products are well positioned at the core of the community, serving our readers and vendor partners in the best way possible.”

In her Sept. 2, 2009 blog appearing in the online edition of the Press of Atlantic City newspaper, columnist Carla Linz Callaway suggests that the event fell prey to “changing times and technology,” and that it is gone for good. In the blog posting, she writes that “Atlantic City tourism officials don’t expect it to come back.”

While unconfirmed, there has been a buzz circulating within the antiques trade that a Florida-based show promotion group may have bought, or is in the process of buying, Atlantique City – or that they may be interested in establishing an antiques fair of their own at the Atlantic City Convention Center. Whether there is any truth to the rumor or not, collectors can look forward to another new show which will take place in the Philadelphia/South Jersey metro area – an “antiques and collectors expo” produced by Jerry Frey. The show will launch in April 2010 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks, near Valley Forge and King of Prussia Mall. Auction Central News will provide full details on this event in the near future.

All dealers who signed up in advance for Atlantique City will receive a full and complete refund of their deposit monies as soon as possible. Any questions regarding deposits should be addressed to Events Coordinator Karen Thulien, She can be reached via e-mail at Karen.Thulien@fwmedia.com.

About Atlantique City:

Held in recent years at the new Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantique City started in 1986 as an annual show held at the original Atlantic City Convention Center venue and quickly grew as one of the nation’s most diverse and largest indoor antiques and collectibles shows. In time, the show expanded to semiannual status. Over the years, some of the world’s top dealers exhibited antiques, toys, advertising, fine porcelain, glass and lighting, jewelry and various collectibles at Atlantique City.

Krause Publications purchased the show from founder Norman Schaut in 2001 and eventually dropped the fall edition, returning it to an annual event. The shows consistently offered as much in entertainment value as in buying and selling opportunities. Special displays have included the Kennedy Collection, Miss America memorabilia, and Treasures from the Titanic.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Historical photograph of an Atlantic City tourist boat, from a special display enjoyed by patrons of a past Atlantique City Show. Image courtesy Antique Trader and F+W Media.
Historical photograph of an Atlantic City tourist boat, from a special display enjoyed by patrons of a past Atlantique City Show. Image courtesy Antique Trader and F+W Media.

Feds gather vast collection of artifacts from Colorado dealer

The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A Colorado antiquities dealer is surrendering a vast personal collection of ancient artifacts in another break in the federal investigation of looting and grave-robbing in the Four Corners region.

More than 20 government agents, archaeologists and curators descended early Wednesday on a home in Durango, Colo., to haul away a lifetime collection from 74-year-old Carl “Vern” Crites and his wife.

The Bureau of Land Management said the couple was voluntarily turning over its entire collection, which one agent described as staggering. Two moving vans were at the house. Court papers say the items include prayer sticks, ivory beads and a ceremonial war club.

Crites and his wife, Marie, are under indictment for trafficking, theft and grave desecration.

“It’s enormously traumatic for them,” said Wally Bugden, a Salt Lake City lawyer representing Vern Crites. “He’s collected artifacts for 50-plus years, as have many people in the Four Corners area. Whether they were legally obtained or not is obviously the issue.”

According to court papers, some of the artifacts were pilfered from federal lands in Utah. But BLM spokesman Steven Hall said it would take examinations by archaeologists to determine the origin of each artifact. Some are believed by investigators to be thousands of years old.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney for Utah, Brett Tolman, said the surrender was not being made in tandem with a plea deal.

“We can’t confirm any plea deal until one is executed, and right now there isn’t one,” said spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch. “We expect a judge to set a trial in this case just like all of the other cases.”

The surrender, together with a similar hand-over earlier this summer by Jeanne Redd of Blanding, Utah, recovers some of the biggest collections at the center of a 2 1/2-year sting operation, which resulted in felony charges against 25 people. Two of them committed suicide, another two quickly pleaded guilty and the rest have pleaded not guilty.

The investigation broke open in early June with early morning raids on a dozen rural Utah homes. Other defendants were arrested or surrendered in Colorado and New Mexico. Authorities have already seized truckloads of artifacts and are aggressively pursuing leads.

Vern and Marie Crites left their house Wednesday with the arrival of federal agents, Hall said. In a brief interview last week, Marie Crites told The Associated Press she had no comment – except to complain that during her arrest in June, she was thrown into jail in handcuffs and denied a bathroom visit.

Vern Crites described much of his collection in a series of secret recordings made by a FBI undercover operative throughout 2008. Characterized by other players as a major dealer and “price-setter,” Crites bragged of having sold pottery collections worth $500,000 a set, according to search warrant affidavits obtained by the AP.

Crites traded $4,800 of artifacts with the undercover operative Aug. 27, 2008, the documents say.

His most precious items, however, were not for sale.

The papers say Crites carefully guarded a collection of sacred Pueblo prayer sticks, telling the informant he could not reveal how he obtained them and wouldn’t sell any for fear they could be traced back to him.

Utah state archaeologist Kevin Jones said Pueblo prayer sticks “are just simply not available for sale or to outsiders. It would be like taking the chalice out of a Catholic church,” Jones said. “They’re anointed, sacred objects still in use for ceremonies.”

Crites also revealed to the government informant that in a 1986 raid, federal agents took 32 of his pots but overlooked a hidden safe and the most damning evidence – a ledger of a lifetime of trading that named people he dealt with. He also was recorded saying the safe contained a mummified eagle.

At another point, the informant said he watched Crites dig up an ancient burial site, kicking out a skull on the third shovelful. Spooked, Crites and another man covered up the remains without trying to recover any artifacts.

“Wish that fella had still been intact – the skeleton, I mean,” Crites was recorded saying at a site in San Juan County, Utah.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WS-08-19-09 1355EDT

German police confiscate fake Giacomettis

A genuine Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Three Men Walking II, 1949, courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A genuine Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Three Men Walking II, 1949, courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A genuine Alberto Giacometti sculpture, Three Men Walking II, 1949, courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

BERLIN (AP) – German police have confiscated hundreds of bronze and plaster statues alleged to be the works of Alberto Giacometti (Italian, 1901-1966) and arrested an art dealer and two others on suspicion of selling the fakes across the globe.
Prosecutors in Stuttgart said Wednesday a 59-year-old man in Frankfurt, as well as a 61-year-old art dealer and his wife, have been held in detention since their arrest a week ago.

The trio face charges of collaborating since 2004 to offer and sell the forged artworks, complete with certificates of authentication, to buyers worldwide for tens of millions of dollars. None of the suspects were identified.

Prosecutors said the 61-year-old posed as a count who worked as a salesman offering the statues to potential buyers. His 59-year-old colleague then posed as a friend of the artist’s brother, saying he had found the statues in a secret cache, found after his death in 1966.

Earlier this year, a Giacometti sculpture sold at a New York auction for $7.7 million, above its pre-sale estimate. The bronze, titled Bust of Diego, which features the artist’s brother, had not been exhibited for more than 35 years.

Giacometti is probably best known for his skeletal and elongated standing women and striding men, depicted on the current 100-Swiss franc bank note along with a portrait of the artist.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WS-08-19-09 1353EDT