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Muhammad Ali, Fake?

I should have posted this long ago. I bought in 2002, paid $450. Got it from Park West Galleries, yes on a cruise ship. I've been talking to PW for about two months about replacing or giving me my money back. I am very surprised they have spent this long talking to me, even though we go for weeks without contact, and I know I will get nothing. I just want to see how it ends. I would like to shed a little light on Park West. In my mind they are a big ARA. They are an art dealer but do sell memorabilia. In my research I have found Fine Art Registry. They are single handedly taking on PW and give people a place to turn after realizing they have been burned. I have talked to them many times. She is the Steve Cyrkin of the art world. I would love comments about the Ali piece, I'm not trying to cross the line over to art, but if anyone is interested, give a little attention to Fine Art Registry. She is fighting a good fight over there.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 3, 2012 at 7:28am

Love it! Thank you, Barry.

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Permalink Reply by DB on April 3, 2012 at 7:55am

barry, don't be silly - take the money and sign the settlement agreement. Me, I would have taken the ali above but I understand the reservations. Once the $$ is in hand then merely a "we have settled the matter on the refund but the terms and conditions are under a "confidentiality" agreement". The rest of us will know and understand. Either way it was your call.

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on April 3, 2012 at 5:21pm

If this was a basic confidentiality agreement I would have signed DB. I would have to fight any subpoena, summons, fight jurisdiction. It covered everything and everyone, from the mailman to the girl that passes out champagne at the art auctions. It just seemed so dirty. I don't want to sound like $500 is nothing to me. It's a lot of money, but not enough for me to sign this. And it just never set well with me that they really wanted me to take the "$3000 Ali" over the $500. Now if this was for $5000? You'd never hear from me again.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 16, 2012 at 9:40am

As far as I know, that is not a current Ali signature. It could be older or he could have changed recently, but it's more of an abbreviated version of his autograph from maybe about 10 years ago or more.

I'm not saying it's bad--it could be just fine. But it's much nicer than what I've seen in recent years.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Digby on April 3, 2012 at 12:48am

As far as I am aware he stopped adding `alias` Cassius Clay` many years ago before his signature gotten so small and rushed as in more recent years

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Permalink Reply by Milton Lubin on October 9, 2012 at 4:43am

1000 % fake!!!

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Permalink Reply by kevin studer on February 28, 2013 at 11:09pm

Hello, I bought an almost identical piece on a ship in june 2002. The signature looks almost identical but in silver pen. Recently ive been looking to see what its worth and ive found some discrepancies with PW. Can you please give me some info if you have any? Ive been told if I want to see if its worth real money id have to send it out and pay over 100 dollars to verify it. I bought it years ago and im not really a collector so I would greatly appreciate any insight that you have. Was looking to sell it to a collector that has an appreciation for an item like this if its real but I dont want to waste anyones time or money.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 28, 2013 at 11:57pm

Hi Kevin,

Upload an image here and ask for opinions on authenticity. You should get at least a few opinions.

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Permalink Reply by kevin studer on March 1, 2013 at 10:57am

Hello, here's the image of the one I have. The situation is almost identical to barry's. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on March 5, 2013 at 3:06pm

It does look like mine Kevin, and that's not good. I remember in one of our heated arguments, the PW sales rep told me Park West doesn't sell for investment purposes. I wonder why she said that?

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on March 5, 2013 at 3:18pm

From Operation Bullpen. Where mine came from I was told.

Home Page | News & Reviews | Excerpts | Gallery | The Author | Order

Introduction | Forging Babe Ruth | Scamming Ali and Sly

Ex-heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner fought a memorable 1975 title fight with Muhammad Ali, a bouth that may have inspired Sylvester Stallone to make "Rocky." But after Wepner left boxing, he and John Olson teamed up to produce counterfeit Ali and Stallone memorabilia. As this excerpt shows, Olson forged the signatures and the man who bills himself as "the real-life Rocky" vouched for their authenticity . . .

Olson estimated that over the years he forged close to 10,000 items, mainly of Muhammad Ali. "It was crazy. We went on for years. People saying, 'I want to buy five hundred Ali photographs. I want to buy a thousand Ali photographs.'"

To meet these demands, John did the forging, Brian [Ginsberg, a Long Island memorabilia dealer] did the selling, and Chuck did the vouching. "Chuck would say we had five hundred photos signed by Ali and we'd show them a photo of Chuck and Ali together. If someone said something about it, Chuck would say, 'Oh no, I was with Ali personally.' He also sometimes gave letters of authenticity. But he didn't like doing that because he knew that'd catch up with him," said Olson.