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Another American Royal Arts nightmare story

Ok, so obviously this story goes back years ago, but I feel like less of a fool if I start at the beginning. Originally, I had little to no interest in autographed items, simply because I didn't know who to trust or what I was doing. Then, while on vacation in Orlando Florida, my husband and I saw a limited edition print of Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, and George Burns for sale in 1 of the shops at Universal Studios. Being a huge fan of all 3, we just had to buy it. Soon after, we got a phone call from someone at a company called American Royal Arts, who had appearantly been to actual sellers of the photo. Of course at that point, I figured I had bought this item from a shop located inside the Universal Studios theme park, it had to be a legitimate company...

That is how the relationship began. Over the next few years, we purchased tens of thousands of dollars worth of prints, some autographed, some not, from ARA. Let me add here that we are not by any means a wealthy couple. Comfortable, yes, but not wealthy. However, the way we saw it, ARA offered a reasonable payment plan for us, we could comfortably spare the monthly payments, and these were nice pieces of art which would most likely increase in value, and could be one day passed down to future generations. All together we spent close to $30,000, spread out over about 3 years.

So I'm sure you can figure my current situation... sitting here now, wondering if any of these items are worth more than the paper they are printed on. Most of the pieces I had purchased were Joe Petruccio items, and I don't doubt those items. My biggest concerns are regarding the rat pack autographed items, and the Mohamad Ali autographs. I was told when I purchased these items that ARA had a deal with representatives of Frank Sinatra enterprises as well as Mohamad Ali, but now I'm not so sure.

I know I can't really be told anything for sure without a second authentication, but I'm really just fishing for info, if anyone knows if the claims of these deals were legit. You see, we didn't purchase 2 or 3 high priced items to come to the high dollar amounts, we purchased a lot of $500 to $1000 items, with just a few costing a couple of thousand... So of course, if I were to get everything authenticated through a 3rd party, I'd wind up throwing another couple of thousand away, just to be told that I wasted my money to begin with.

So to sum it up, while I don't trust anything they've sold me, I'm just curious if anyone knows if any of the Sinatra or Ali autographs they were selling were real? This question is just for my personal information btw, I still look at these items as beautiful decorative items and have no interest in selling any of them... If I did ever choose to sell any of them, I would have to foot the bill for the re-authentication

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on June 1, 2012 at 7:52pm

You'll need to share some photos to get opinions.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Whitehead on June 1, 2012 at 8:31pm

Ok, when I told my husband what I was doing, he remided me of another one that we are now questioning (even more than the others actually), which is a GNR book. Let me know if I should post a different style picture, but I've got this one right now, and the Sinatra and Ali ones I'll post in a few minutes.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Whitehead on June 1, 2012 at 8:37pm

And here are the rat pack and Ali #1

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Whitehead on June 1, 2012 at 9:18pm

And here is rat pack #2, Ali #2, and one of Sinatra alone.

thanks in advance for any help!

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Permalink Reply by Trapper9990 on June 1, 2012 at 11:00pm

Hi Tracy,

I am very sorry to hear all of this. But one good point is that i know this company is taking a pounding right now as far as lawsuits, etc for selling these fake items. I dont know exactly the situation with them anymore, Steve would probably be able to fill you in pretty quick, but i have heard of a few customers who have gotten their money back. This was several years ago, so maybe their is still hope. Unfortunately, i havent heard of a good item coming from them in a long time. The only autograph i feel confident on commenting on here is the GNR graph. I have studied their graphs alot because their are so many forgeries out their, especially of Axl. I think that the forger gave it a descent shot at the gnr graphs but in the end they are better than average forgeries. They never really can get axl right when they try to do his full name. Now that Axl mainly just signs his first name its much harder to tell but the full name sigs give it away. I could be wrong though so wait for a few more opinions but im confident the gnr book is fake. hope this helps

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on June 2, 2012 at 8:47am

the only ones I am familiar with are the Sinatra and Ali, and I don't believe any of them are good. Sorry.

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Permalink Reply by DB on June 2, 2012 at 2:14pm

A fully signed rat pack graph is about as scarce as getting an authentic Fab Four.

Since you are most likely already out $30k (and ARA if you search on and read the other articles of those seriously taken as well) is already through bankruptcy and opening up under a new "enterprise" if I read this right.

You can also do a search here on AML to find some added independent Authenticators for Ali (who I suspect will confirm terrier) but If epperson comes out of hibernation he can also opine on the music ones as well.

Amazing how once they got their hooks into you they really sucked you in!