A man views a painting "The Persistence of Memory" by artist Salvador Dali at an exhibition hall of surrealist works in the Museum of Modern Art on July 3, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Liao Pan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
ATLANTA - A Florida art collector is suing an Atlanta antiques dealer, accusing him of running an elaborate, years-long scheme to sell thousands of counterfeit artworks disguised as multimillion-dollar originals.
What they're saying:
According to a federal lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Georgia, Beaux Arts Museum, LLC says longtime acquaintance Allan Baitcher — owner of Peachtree Antiques — built a complex operation of fake experts, forged documents and fictitious museums to convince the collector that the art was authentic. The complaint says Baitcher used their decades-long personal relationship to gain trust and access to funds.
The lawsuit alleges Baitcher created entire fake identities to "authenticate" the art, including inventing museum directors and appraisers, setting up websites for them, and sending emails from fabricated accounts. Investigators say one of those identities, "Wuhan Cheung," supposedly represented the Hong Kong Museum of Art — a claim the real museum denied.
The filing says Baitcher also imported more than 360,000 pounds of replica sculptures and paintings from China over several years, then sold them as originals by major artists including Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Banksy, Constantin Brâncuși and Alberto Giacometti.
The alleged fraud unraveled when the collector began contacting real museums and authentication boards, many of which confirmed they had never evaluated the pieces or issued the documents Baitcher provided. If the artwork had been real, it would have been worth approximately $20 million, according to lawsuit.
Beaux Arts Museum is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, the return of all money spent on the artwork, and orders requiring Baitcher to surrender any profits tied to the alleged scheme. The lawsuit also accuses him of federal and state RICO violations, fraud and theft by deception.