Historical Society of Ocean Grove museum. Pitman Avenue next door to Days. © Blogfinger .net photo
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Every year the Historical Society of Ocean Grove offers two very popular antiques auctions: Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. These auctions permit consigned items to be sold, and the auctioneer at these HSOG events was to be an experienced member of the HSOG Board who was also selling his own consigned items. There is no inherent problem with either of these policies.
The May 23 event at the Youth Temple seemed to go well until an email complaint surfaced on Facebook two days later, alleging that the auctioneer was “playing favorites with one individual in the audience all night long” giving the impression that the pair might have been trying to influence some outcomes of the bidding.
The complainant not only cited “wrong” behavior, but speculated that “money might have been passed under the table.” She also blamed the HSOG for not noticing the “wrong way the auction was conducted.” She said, “HSOG, you need to look at yourselves and clean up your act.”
The e-mail complaint did not allege “illegal” activities, but there is a law against “buy-back bidding” where a “shill” in the audience tries to drive up the price on certain items to help the seller of consigned goods.
According to Darrell Dufresne, a member of the HSOG Board, the group was horrified when the allegations appeared, especially after others made similar complaints to the Board. They immediately launched an investigation and they tried to hire a second professional auctioneer for September 4, but that was not possible.
Dufresne said that they found “no clear evidence” of illegal or unethical activity, but even the appearance of such could damage the reputation of the organization. When asked his opinion if something illegal had occurred, he said, “I don’t know.”
Meanwhile, rumors and speculation about the cancellation continued. In order to avoid an inevitable cloud over the Labor Day auction, the group decided to cancel the Sept. 4 event, review their rules regarding future HSOG auctions, and “look forward to a successful auction in the Spring .” One change will be that the next auctioneer will be an “independent professional.”