Written by: Derek Kessler (Trek United News Editor)
Star Trek memorabilia collector Ted Moustakis has filed a $7 million lawsuit against Christie’s auction house and CBS, alledging that items sold at the highly-publicized Trek auction last year were not authentic. Moustakis won three items through the auction – a uniform worn by Brent Spiner (Data) on The Next Generation, a poker table used on the series, and a poker visor worn by Spiner. When Moustakis recently showed the visor to Spiner, who said that it was not the real visor – he had sold it years earlier on eBay. Spiner also claims to have warned Christie’s that both the visor and poker table were not authentic – items for which Moustakis paid $12,000.
To ensure the authenticity and accuracy of the auction, Christie’s enlisted the help of Denise and Michael Okuda to catalog every one of the 1000 lots, including verifying the onscreen use by referencing DVDs to see where the prop, costume, or model was used. The process and the auction itself where chronicled by The History Channel in both a live internet stream of the auction, and the documentary Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier as part of their celebration of Trek’s 40th anniversary.
Read full details HERE.
Did he at least get his 12k back or is this case still in progress