Post by blackcrowheart on Mar 4, 2006 11:04:53 GMT -5
Headdress Found For Auction
Antiques shop finds contraband
Illegal headdress was set for auction
By MARCIA LANGHENRY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/02/06
Tucked in a box of art and artifacts, photos and drawings to be sold
at auction in Sandy Springs this weekend was an "American treasure"
that money simply cannot buy.
But when employees at Red Baron's Antiques saw this treasure, they
called in the feds.
BOB ANDRES / Staff
(ENLARGE)
Paul Brown, vice president of Red Baron's Antiques in Sandy Springs,
holds an American Indian headdress made of golden eagle feathers
that was found in a box of items to be sold at auction.
"No one here wants to go to jail," said Paul Brown, vice president
of the 30-year-old Sandy Springs business.
The contraband was an American Indian headdress made of golden eagle
feathers. Golden and bald eagles have been protected by the
government since 1940.
A special agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Atlanta
visited Wednesday to take possession of the headdress. It is against
federal law to possess, purchase, sell or transfer the feathers,
according to Special Agent Brian Roland. Maximum penalties are up to
$250,000 and two years in prison.
Roland has set in motion an investigation together with the federal
government's National Eagle Repository in Denver. "We are going to
have somebody try to determine which tribe it came from," Roland
said. "If we can make that determination, we will try to repatriate
it. If not, we will send the headdress eagle feathers to the
National Eagle Repository."
Brown said the headdress was found in a box that came from a storage
facility "out West."
The items, he said, had belonged to a caregiver for the late actor
Burt Lancaster.
Could it be a movie prop?
Maybe, but it still contains golden eagle feathers, Roland said.
In a highly publicized case five years ago, an attorney who
practiced in Gwinnett County learned his lesson about eagle feathers
the hard way.
Leighton Deming was arrested at gunpoint by federal agents while
trying to barter some sketches and a headdress thought to have
belonged to Apache leader Geronimo. They had been in Deming's family
for decades after Geronimo gave them to a friend, who gave them to
Deming's grandfather, according to documents passed along with the
headdress.
Deming faced the maximum penalties after his arrest in October 1999
for arranging a sale over the Internet to a buyer who turned out to
be a federal agent. In the end, Deming entered a plea and turned
over the headdress to authorities. He was not fined and did not
serve any jail time.
At Red Baron's this week, auction organizers weren't taking any
chances with the problematic feathers as they prepared for this
weekend's auction of big-ticket items for big-spending clients from
around the globe.
Among other offerings up for auction are a $10,000 bill expected to
bring between $70,000 and $90,000, a 1958 Corvette, a half-dozen
Rolls Royce Corniches, paintings, furnishings from castles, and one-
of-a-kind works of art and architecture.
Brown describes the clientele as "fabulously wealthy people that
need to buy something."
And the 800 or so people who will pack the place Saturday morning
will be able to buy anything they fancy, except that headdress.
"It's definitely an American treasure," Brown said.
Antiques shop finds contraband
Illegal headdress was set for auction
By MARCIA LANGHENRY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/02/06
Tucked in a box of art and artifacts, photos and drawings to be sold
at auction in Sandy Springs this weekend was an "American treasure"
that money simply cannot buy.
But when employees at Red Baron's Antiques saw this treasure, they
called in the feds.
BOB ANDRES / Staff
(ENLARGE)
Paul Brown, vice president of Red Baron's Antiques in Sandy Springs,
holds an American Indian headdress made of golden eagle feathers
that was found in a box of items to be sold at auction.
"No one here wants to go to jail," said Paul Brown, vice president
of the 30-year-old Sandy Springs business.
The contraband was an American Indian headdress made of golden eagle
feathers. Golden and bald eagles have been protected by the
government since 1940.
A special agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Atlanta
visited Wednesday to take possession of the headdress. It is against
federal law to possess, purchase, sell or transfer the feathers,
according to Special Agent Brian Roland. Maximum penalties are up to
$250,000 and two years in prison.
Roland has set in motion an investigation together with the federal
government's National Eagle Repository in Denver. "We are going to
have somebody try to determine which tribe it came from," Roland
said. "If we can make that determination, we will try to repatriate
it. If not, we will send the headdress eagle feathers to the
National Eagle Repository."
Brown said the headdress was found in a box that came from a storage
facility "out West."
The items, he said, had belonged to a caregiver for the late actor
Burt Lancaster.
Could it be a movie prop?
Maybe, but it still contains golden eagle feathers, Roland said.
In a highly publicized case five years ago, an attorney who
practiced in Gwinnett County learned his lesson about eagle feathers
the hard way.
Leighton Deming was arrested at gunpoint by federal agents while
trying to barter some sketches and a headdress thought to have
belonged to Apache leader Geronimo. They had been in Deming's family
for decades after Geronimo gave them to a friend, who gave them to
Deming's grandfather, according to documents passed along with the
headdress.
Deming faced the maximum penalties after his arrest in October 1999
for arranging a sale over the Internet to a buyer who turned out to
be a federal agent. In the end, Deming entered a plea and turned
over the headdress to authorities. He was not fined and did not
serve any jail time.
At Red Baron's this week, auction organizers weren't taking any
chances with the problematic feathers as they prepared for this
weekend's auction of big-ticket items for big-spending clients from
around the globe.
Among other offerings up for auction are a $10,000 bill expected to
bring between $70,000 and $90,000, a 1958 Corvette, a half-dozen
Rolls Royce Corniches, paintings, furnishings from castles, and one-
of-a-kind works of art and architecture.
Brown describes the clientele as "fabulously wealthy people that
need to buy something."
And the 800 or so people who will pack the place Saturday morning
will be able to buy anything they fancy, except that headdress.
"It's definitely an American treasure," Brown said.