Artspace2000 Art Fraud Alert

By JULIE HAUSERMAN
St. Petersburg Times

TALLAHASSEE -- Hundreds of people across Florida may have been scammed by a man who authorities say made a million dollars a month passing off fake art as the real thing.

Darrell Tyrone Coker, who has a criminal record stretching to 1968, lured wealthy investors to swank hotel ballrooms at all of Florida's major cities during the past eight years, investigators say.

There, he offered them wine and hors d'oeuvres and promised them a chance to bid on rare paintings and sculptures by famed artists such as Frederic Remington, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.

Instead, Coker sold both residents and visitors cheap, virtually worthless reproductions. He dummied up fake appraisals and hired on-site security guards to make people feel safe, then pocketed the cash, investigators say. Coker, 47, lived in a home worth more than $800,000 in Longwood, near Orlando. He operated using at least two companies: Jewelry Auction Inc. and Henry Bonnard Bronze Co., which manufactured the bronze sculptures he sold as valuable originals.

On Tuesday, Coker turned himself in at the Seminole County Jail, where he is being held on $50,000 bail on fraud and grand theft charges, both felonies.

At a Tallahassee news conference Tuesday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents warned amateur art collectors: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You might find a bargain at an estate sale, but you're probably not going to buy a genuine Remington sculpture or an original Dali.

Eric Lang Peterson, a longtime art appraiser in St. Petersburg, agreed:
"What I tell people is not to go to those cocktail party hotel ballroom auctions and expect to buy their fabulous art retirement investment," Peterson said. "If it's a real big name in the art world, it's not going to be sold in a hotel lobby.

"People should not buy things there any more than they would buy stocks in a hotel ballroom. They get caught up in the glitz of it. They wouldn't treat any of their other investments that way. It's unfortunate that people get trapped into throwing their money away." Peterson said investors should never buy major artwork without getting an independent appraisal first.

Since 1995, FDLE has targeted Coker in an investigation they are calling "Operation Artful Dodger." The investigation is ongoing.

The FDLE opened the case after one investor took his supposedly original work of art to an independent appraiser and discovered it was a garden-variety reproduction.
Agents interviewed 150 people who were taken in by the scam.

"There are more victims out there," said FDLE spokeswoman Mandy Wettstein. "He is alleged to have defrauded hundreds, perhaps thousands, of consumers."
Neither Coker nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

FDLE Special Agent John Stevens said Coker, who has a Florida criminal history that includes robbery, assault, disorderly conduct, marijuana possession and battery, was convincing at the auctions. He took out large newspaper advertisements, trumpeting paintings by the masters, Tiffany lamps, rare jewelry, Oriental carpets, coins, and gold and silver bars.

"He appears to be very knowledgeable," Stevens said. "He represents himself to be a professor." Coker had a business license to hold the auctions, according to state records. A spokesman for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation refused to say whether there is an ongoing investigation into Coker's business practices.

The Department of Revenue is going after Coker because he failed to pay taxes on his auction sales.

Coker will be prosecuted in Tallahassee by the Office of Statewide Prosecution. That office, and the FDLE, are looking for other people who feel they may have bought phony art at one of Coker's auctions. Anyone who has information about the auctions, or Coker, is urged to call the FDLE at 904-488-1040, or the Statewide Prosecutor's Office at 904-487-2807

Darrell Tyrone Coker was convicted of art fraud and was sentenced to 5 years in Florida State prison.

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