From the good people at the Edna Hibel studio:

(By the way, if you haven't checked out her artwork, I encourage you to do so. She's a talented artist. You can see her work at www.hibel.com.)


The opening up of The People's Republic of China to the degree where it has welcomed the world inside its borders for the 29th Olympiad—hardly conceivable a scant thirty years ago—has occurred in small, incremental steps, beginning with the ping-pong diplomacy days of President Richard Nixon. In addition to sports, art has been instrumental in this increase of freedoms within China. Perhaps two important small steps toward China's increasing freedoms that have occurred along the way were the historic 1986 Edna Hibel art exhibitions in Beijing's China National Art Gallery, and Chongqing's Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts. These were the first exhibitions by a foreign woman in China.

Here is a brief history of what occurred in the aftermath of Edna Hibel's exhibitions in China, both of which were endorsed by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, and then-Chinese Ambassador to the U.S.A., the Honorable Han Xu. (Other official endorsements came from then-Florida Governor Bob Graham, the then-American Ambassador to China, Winston Lord, along with officials from important American art institutions, such as the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.)

The Beijing opening of Hibel's exhibition was seen by many millions of Chinese on television. During the broadcast, the host said, "Hibel's beautiful art touched the hearts of the Chinese people." Several viewers from outlying provinces reported that they had sold their bicycles—their only mode of transportation—in order to travel to Beijing to view the Hibel exhibition.

Upon the conclusion of these historic Sino-American art exhibitions in 1986, China's Consul General to the U.S.A., Ni Yaoli, proclaimed to a large audience, "Edna Hibel has built a golden bridge between our two nations." Immediately, another exhibition invitation was extended to Edna Hibel by the Chinese government.

As an example of this "golden bridge," one of the paintings in Hibel's groundbreaking 50-year retrospective exhibitions in 1986 in China was a portrait of one of her classmates, Winnie Cheng, who returned to her native China shortly after the painting was completed in 1936. Winnie and Edna corresponded, but lost touch with each other after the start of WWII. As a result of the exhibition, however, a photograph of the Winnie Cheng painting appeared in a Shanghai newspaper.

Consequently, Winnie's son and grandson were found to be living in the U.S., and a tearful meeting was arranged where Edna learned that Winnie and her husband had died shortly after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Edna then created a drawing of Winnie's grandson, William, which was slated to be used as a poster in "A Golden Bridge," the forthcoming Hibel exhibition scheduled for September 1989 in Beijing. Unfortunately, the Tiananmen Square incident intervened and that second Hibel exhibition in China did not take place.

Back when I was a kid – and I’d like to think it wasn’t that long ago – I can’t recall many occasions where we had to lock the doors of our house or our car. Sometimes, during the deep-freeze days of winter, we’d even leave the old station wagon running while we popped into the store to grab some milk and bread.

We weren’t concerned someone would drive off with our car. Or sneak into our house and rob us blind while we were away at church. We trusted our friends and neighbors. We trusted people in general. We didn’t give it a second thought.

Somewhere along the line, that ability to trust became an exception rather than the norm. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt. And many times we can. On rare occasions, though, we get burned and the thought of trusting someone with our friendship, with our business, with our money, leaves a bad taste in our mouth.

Last week, a North Carolina woman named Patricia Jacoby was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for a pyramid scheme. Why do we care? We care because she represented herself as an antiques dealer and investor who bilked dozens of people like you and me out of an estimated $2.5 million.

The first troubling fact about this news story is that she was representing herself as a legitimate member of our industry. She lied to investors, telling them she purchased estate lots of antiques to resell them at profit and promised a 22 percent return on their investments within 30 days. The victims trusted her at her word.

The other troubling fact is that this latest conviction was her third offense. According to news accounts, Jacoby was previously convicted in two other schemes. She spent a year and a half in prison for bilking investors in an art scheme after a 2000 conviction. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to similar charges and paid $56,000 in restitution to victims.

Investigators said she used money raised from investors in the latest scam to repay previous victims, noting the antiques investment scheme was in the works as soon as Jacoby completed her sentence in the earlier case.

Fortunately, this brand of schemer doesn’t come along every day. For the most part, we can be proud to be a part of an industry of honest, hardworking dealers and shop owners. These rare exceptions, however, do raise some red flags. Whom can we trust? How do we know if someone is running a legitimate business? Can I trust that I am not buying a fake or reproduction?

Antique Trader would like to know how you determine a seller (or buyer for that matter) is trustworthy. Up to and including a police background check, what do you do to safeguard your investment before making it? Have you ever been the victim of an antiques-related scam? Please share your advice so other readers can learn from your experience, too. We’re all in this together. Let’s continue to watch each other’s back as we have been ... and pat each other’s back for your efforts to keep this industry clear of scandal.

Please e-mail me at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com, post a reply here, or drop me a line in the trusty old mailbox!

There’s no need to take your antiques on the road to find out what they are worth. A new class offered by Macomb Community College’s Center for Continuing Education will help attendees learn about the business of valuing and selling antiques.

“Hidden Treasures – Valuing Your Antiques” will be feature a panel of local antique professionals who will share their insights into the world of antiques. After the presentation, the panel will provide courtesy appraisals for one item per attendee.

The class will be offered 1:30-4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at Macomb’s South Campus in Warren, Mich. The class fee is $39.

For more information about the class or to register, call 586.498.4000 or visit www.macomb.edu/cce.

About Macomb Community College
Macomb Community College (www.macomb.edu) is one of the nation’s leading community colleges, providing learning experiences to more than 59,000 students annually. Macomb nationally ranks in the top two percent in the number of associate degrees awarded and as the largest grantor of associate degrees in Michigan. The college’s comprehensive educational programming includes pre-collegiate experiences, university transfer and career preparation programs, bachelor degree completion and graduate degree programs, workforce training, professional education and certification, and continuing education and enrichment opportunities.

Well, folks, Labor Day is two weeks away. That means, of course, the end of summer. Kids head back to school and we can look forward to cooler weather, shorter days, and autumn colors sool following.

Labor Day also means antique shows. The York Antiques Show runs from Aug. 29-31, there are many holiday antiques fairs, shows, markets and fleas also running through the Labor Day holiday weekend all over the country...not to mention all the auction opportunities.

But let's not forget about the collectibles dedicated to this century-old holiday itself! Robert Reed wrote this week's Antique Trader cover story on Labor Day collectibles.

Visit www.antiquetrader.com and check it out! (Or you can click on the cover image below.) And don't forget to check out the story "An antique collection can save the day when times get hard" — it's a MUST read.

I'm troubled.

I read a news story this morning and I'm stuck on it. At the heart of the matter:

A Waterbury antiques dealer has been barred from selling vintage American flags on eBay because of restrictions he placed on who can buy the flags.

(You can read the full story here.)

Mark Albino, owner of C&M Antiques and Collectibles in Waterbury, veteran, and dealer of vintage flags, will not sell a flag to anyone who might desecrate it. An honorable stand to make.

Albino is also a powerseller on eBay, and eBay will not allow such buyer discrimination. Their policy is you either sell internationally or you don't - you don't get to pick and choose which countries you will ship to.

Perhaps Albino needs to find a new venue to sell his vintage flags ...

What are your feelings about this? It's a sad situation when we have to worry about the buyer's intent.

This week, eBay's latest change goes into effect: if a seller lists multiple "identical" listings, only one listing will show up in the search results.

And sellers are understandably upset about it. Imagine paying to list dozens of items, and not having them show up in search results ... they are effectively "hidden" from potential buyers. Ouch!

Click here for a very interesting (and hot) discussion on the AuctionBytes blog.

How many more sellers will jump ship with this "improvement"?

One person did respond with a great idea. They would like a "Sellers I never want to buy from" list so those sellers won't show up in searches. Great idea!

Do you all have any thoughts on these? What kind of improvement would you like eBay to make?