Legal News

Fake Wine, Thomas Jefferson, Christie?s and the Law

By Ashby Jones

Counterfeit wine? Is there really such a thing? Apparently so, and it’s the subject of an intriguing lawsuit filed earlier this week against the auction house Christie’s. WSJ reporters Vanessa O’Connell and Kelly Crow filed this report to the the Law Blog.

A lawsuit filed earlier this week by billionaire wine collector William Koch against Christie's International alleges that the auction house "engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity" together with a German national named Meinhard Görke who uses the self-created name Hardy Rodenstock. Koch calls Rodenstock the "creator of much of the counterfeit high priced wine in the world." Click here for the WSJ story.

For decades, the lawsuit alleges, Rodenstock’s counterfeiting activities have been aided and abetted by J. Michael Broadbent, the former head of Christie’s wine department and thereafter a senior consultant to Christie’s.

According to Koch, Broadbent used his "unique stature" in the wine world and his widely published tasting notes to legitimize the authenticity of Rodenstock’s wines and to attract potential purchasers and increase Christie’s sales. (Christie's sold $40.9 million worth of wine last year.)

A lawyer for Broadbent, Sarah Webb of Russell Jones & Walker, said her client "denies the allegations, as he always has." Last October Broadbent received undisclosed damages from publisher Random House in a settled defamation case over his portrayal in
Benjamin Wallace's book about counterfeit wines, "The Billionaire's Vinegar."

Calls and faxes to Rodenstock's homes in Munich and Kitzbühel, Austria, were not returned Wednesday.

The saga has its roots in a December 1985 sale of a batch of late 18th century wine at Christie's that the auction house, together with Rodenstock, touted as having once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

Christie's, in its marketing materials at the time, said Rodenstock had acquired the bottles months earlier from someone who claimed they had been found in a bricked-up cellar in Paris. Mr.
Rodenstock didn't divulge specific details about its location.

Koch bought one of the Jefferson bottles but says he felt cheated afterward when he learned that wine experts at Jefferson's estate at Monticello had expressed doubts to Christie's about the validity of the surprise find in Paris.

Koch now has a total of six pending lawsuits alleging sales of counterfeit wine.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 01, 2010 (boomark / email).