As the forms began to arrive last week, dealers who had business with Sotheby’s and Christie’s from 1993-1999, when they were deemed to have colluded, contacted the Antiques Trade Gazette to point out a basic error. In the section of the form titled Pre-Printed Transactions Supplied by Christie’s and Sotheby’s many were surprised to find an item bought for £1000 had been listed as $1000 by the American company administering the settlement.
Claimants were also frustrated to find the list of transactions far from complete and warned others to read carefully before ticking boxes to approve the statistics.
Sotheby’s have recommended that claimants consult Section 3 of the brochure sent out with the forms, which deals with Additional or Challenged Transaction and follow the instructions accordingly.
Otherwise they could contact Garden City Group directly, the class action specialists appointed by the plaintiffs and the auction houses to administer the settlement. Garden City Group are based in Melville, New York (despite the nature of the settlement there is no European telephone number to call) and can be contacted on 00 1 888 469 4788.
• BADA and LAPADA are yet to receive replies from Garden City Group concerning the withholding tax imposed by the US Federal Government on the recipients of cheques relating to the US leg of the price-fixing settlement (as reported in Gazette No 1593, June 14).
Controversially, the levy of around 30 per cent was raised on the grounds that the partial repayment of buyers’ and sellers’ premiums constitute “a profit trading in the United States”.
Currency error delays collusion compensation
A BASIC clerical error seems certain to delay compensation payments linked to the Sotheby’s/Christie’s price fixing settlement, it has emerged. At least in some cases, the figures quoted in forms sent out notifying claimants of their entitlements have been transcribed in dollars rather than in sterling.
