A hidden difficulty for auction houses

[drc]

I had an expensive item that a celebrity lawyer's said was stolen from the celebrity. I won't go into the details, but evidence/research proved it was not. I presented this info the lawyer and never head back from him again. What bothered me about the episode was the lawyer didn't say it he had reason to believe it might or could have been stolen, but that it was stolen when this turned out to entirely false and impossible.

The meat of the story is that, due to money dispute, the celebrity never attended a big event and so the organization chose not to give the celebrity the item. It was documented who the organization instead gave the item to (an official who did show up to the event) and that that it was later purchased directly from this official's family. In short, the celebrity was never given, owned or even physically touched the item, much less could have had it stolen.

Yes, items are stolen. But do I think one should simply go by a celebrity's, family member's or family lawyer's say so? The above story should give you a good hint as to the answer.