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footfootfoot (coign, too), you might want to tell your friend that knowingly presenting a fake item as authentic is fraud. It's one thing to keep a non-expert opinion or suspicion to yourself, but if you have sure knowledge then keeping silent to intentionally mislead a customer (or the 'experts') is against the law - especially if it results in personal gain. A reproduction of that quality may be worth $21000 - but it also might look like participating in a scam to a court of law.
I have a friend who makes reproduction items, and is very careful to sign them in such a way to make it clear to an expert that the items are fakes. This kept her out of jail on at least one occasion, when her reproduction was offered at auction as an original. She was not the one who brought it to the auction house -- he was arrested -- but she was initially investigated as possibly being in collusion with him. She ended up being a witness for the prosecution instead.
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