[CPProt.net] FW: wnbc.com - News - Manhattan Cosmetics Mogul Is Sued For Over $1Million In Antiques

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Manhattan Cosmetics Mogul Is Sued For Over $1M In Antiques

POSTED: 8:43 pm EST February 16, 2005
UPDATED: 8:40 am EST February 17, 2005

NEW YORK -- An antiques dealer has sued billionaire cosmetics executive
Ronald Perelman, alleging that he has refused to pay more than $1 million he
owes for art objects and furniture delivered to him.

Perelman has filed a counterclaim alleging fraud and deceptive trade
practices and accusing the dealer, De Vos and Giraud Inc., of deliberately
passing off counterfeit furniture as authentic masterpieces.

De Vos, an Art Deco antiques specialist at 21 E. 67th St. in Manhattan, said
in papers filed Tuesday in state Supreme Court that Perelman contracted
through his decorator, Jack Anderson, to buy the items last fall. As a
courtesy, the papers say, De Vos "even went so far as to give Perelman a
discounted price." 

The antiques included a $75,000 mahogany table discounted to $55,000, a
$115,000 oak dining table for $97,000 and a $546,000 oak chest of drawers
for $465,000.

The items were shipped to Perelman's Upper East Side town house, the
dealer's papers say.

"Then," the papers say, "once he had nearly all of the items in his
possession, Perelman simply refused to pay for any of them."

The lawsuit accuses Perelman of breach of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment
and other civil wrongs and asks the court to order payment of $1.09 million.

Perelman's counterclaim says he bought a dining table that supposedly was
created in 1930 by Ruhlmann and Dunand and had been owned by the Dubonnet
family. His papers say he learned that the table was "a forgery of little or
no value."

If the table had been as advertised by De Vos, Perelman's papers say, it
would now have a value of about $1 million, an amount the mogul says the
court should award him.

Perelman's papers acknowledge receipt of furniture from De Vos last fall but
also say, "These items, too, were examined by a furniture expert and a
number of them determined to be elaborate forgeries."

Perelman's papers say De Vos' "business practices are deceptive and
misleading."

"Defendants have repeatedly represented that they are selling authentic
pieces of antique furniture when they are in fact selling forgeries," the
papers say.

Perelman's counterclaim asks for $1 million in damages.

Perelman spokeswoman Christine Taylor said De Vos filed "an outrageous and
frivolous lawsuit and we intend to demonstrate that it is totally without
merit."
http://www.wnbc.com/news/4205968/detail.html