American Royal Arts Fake Photos & the Originals

Seen on ABC News 20/20 and Inside Edition, Autograph discovered that American Royal Arts has been using photos altered to make it look as if celebrities are signing their questionably autographed guitars. This album contains the fake photos and the original signing photos their guitars were inserted into.

ARA president Jerry Gladstone claims that while the photos may be altered, the signed guitars are genuine, but spokespersons for the Eagles and Led Zeppelin disagree. Autograph magazine has never seen a signed guitar from ARA's supplier, Gallery of Dreams, that they thought was genuine. One of the executives listed on ARA's Executive Profiles page is the infamous forensic document examiner Christopher Morales, whose letters of authentication are widely considered a sign of forgery among autograph experts.

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Comment by mike aring on September 14, 2010 at 9:31pm: 2 questions... steve where did you get the "originals?" that's awesome, someone did an awful lot of work to fiddle with these pics...
2 @alastair- the nirvana item.. it's hard because i don't think that kurt signed his name the same way twice.. eddie vedder did the same thing back then as well. email me your pic, i'll try and help you... i have several exemplars (and he didn't sign a whole lot of nice items, so it's hard to find a real one... I got him myself.)
mike

Comment by Steven Ryan on April 14, 2010 at 3:34pm: I have worked as a photographer, graphic artist and digital imaging specialist for almost 20 yrs....In other words I can do to photos what you have shown here. Hard to belive these "passed" or maybe it is just my experienced eye, but there are huge "giveaways" in all of these bad shadows (wrong place) out of focus to hide cuts and paste, and the over all wrong angles of the hands. Good to know somebody is catching these things, Great post

Comment by Steve Cyrkin on April 8, 2010 at 6:23pm: Depends on a number of factors, including how attractive it is and what photo.

Comment by alastair mulholland on April 8, 2010 at 4:37pm: I own a nirvana signed promo photo which i bought off ebay a few years ago.I know there are a lot of fakes on ebay but the seller bought the photo from heritage auctions and the photo was on there past auction section.How much is this signed photo really worth?

Comment by Josh Board on January 12, 2010 at 9:50am: Often times, people on this site will post an autograph they bought and ask us if we think it's authentic. Then they don't care for the news. In the future, they should tell us WHERE they are planning on buying the signature from. So many companies do bogus things.
There's an "Autograph Central" that has sold lots of bogus stuff to people I know. But I'll tell you what. Their signatures look real. They got some amazing forgers over there.

Comment by Lucy Lu on January 11, 2010 at 11:12am: If I find info, I do not want it on any other site but here.

There are a few sites that tend to take stories from other sites, then claim them for themselves, which I find shameful.

Comment by Lucy Lu on January 11, 2010 at 11:09am: I will find those for you Steve.

Comment by Steve Cyrkin on January 3, 2010 at 9:02pm: Bubbie, thanks, but those were links related to Gladstone's lawsuit against Frank Caiazzo and the Goldmine advertorial he published about me. What do you have from 1994? Thanks

Comment by Lucy Lu on January 3, 2010 at 7:35pm: Gladstone has been involved in a few lawsuits in the past...

From 1994:

www.signedrock.com/complaint/PDF/ARA%27s%2520Response%2520to%2520Au..." target="_blank">http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:1Hc6szqWVsQJ:www.signedrock.com/complaint/PDF/ARA%27s%2520Response%2520to%2520Au...

His synagogue should kick him out in Bocca.

Bubbie.

Comment by Josh Board on December 29, 2009 at 12:43am: Some of the items they had didn't really look authentic to me, even before the bogus photos came out. You always have to wonder...if someone has a signed thing by everyone (led zeppelin, who, doors, all the blues greats, etc).

Another thing collectors have to worry about and look out for: someone could have a REAL photo. And if they make a bunch of copies of the photo, well...they have photos to provide with the piece, that could be forged. Real photo, that they took (and didn't photoshop), but bogus autographs to go with it. A PHOTO DOES NOT EQUAL AUTHENTICITY.