furniture love - Antwerp

Federico R.

Warning: Scam!

The store owner, Thierry, dishonestly and fraudulently attributed two €2400 lamps I purchased in his shop to Maison Jansen with the aim of raising their selling price. When I uncovered the deception and he admitted to fabricating their origin, he stopped replying to my emails and changed the listing on his website, leaving me without a solution. Scam.

In 2012, I bought two table lamps from the website Furniture Love (https://www.furniture-love.com/) that were clearly and explicitly advertised as belonging to Maison Jansen (see attached screenshot).

What attracted me to them, aside from their chrome appearance and blue silk shades, was that they were supposedly made by the iconic French design house that closed in 1989.

Since I thought the price was too high—€2800 for the pair—I negotiated a €400 discount with Thierry, the store owner, and paid €1200 per lamp. The price still seemed steep, but as it was Maison Jansen, I considered it a worthwhile investment.

Upon receiving the lamps, I was surprised they bore no signature or identification mark to certify them as Maison Jansen pieces. I contacted Thierry to verify their authenticity (see attached email). He assured me the lamps were referenced in a Maison Jansen catalog, though he didn't have a copy. Due to his friendly manner and the trust he inspired, I decided to believe him.

Twelve years later, I decided to sell the lamps to recover my initial investment, so I requested an appraisal from the design departments of two of the most prestigious auction houses in Paris. Their unanimous verdict: the lamps were not by Maison Jansen, are not listed in any known catalog, are anonymously authored, and would fetch much less (about a third of what I paid) at auction.

Shocked, I contacted Thierry again to ask for any documentation proving the lamps' origin. After several unanswered emails and persistent attempts, he called me. His response was a surprising confession: "I made a mistake. I don’t have that documentation. I can’t verify the lamps’ origin. I was just starting my business when I sold them to you. But they’re beautiful, and you’ve enjoyed them for 12 years….”

His only "solution" was to suggest I try to sell them to someone close to me. I told him I felt scammed—that he knowingly sold me anonymous lamps as if they were by Maison Jansen solely to increase the price. I asked him to take responsibility for his deception and offer a solution. He never replied to my emails again.

Thierry has acted dishonestly and irresponsibly with me from the start: he falsely attributed a pair of anonymous lamps to Maison Jansen to inflate their price. He had the chance to admit his mistake and correct it 12 years ago when I asked for guarantees on the lamps' origin and again recently when he admitted he fabricated their origin but claimed that “12 years later, that was no longer his problem.” A scam.

The only action he has taken to address my complaint was to change his website, where the lamps were advertised as Maison Jansen since 2012 (see October 8 screenshot) to now read “attributed to Maison Jansen” (see October 27 screenshot).

Attached are screenshots before this change and the invoice where the lamps are listed as Maison Jansen. Fortunately, he cannot falsify the attached emails or this document as well.

I am attaching all documentation as evidence of this regrettable experience. I would never recommend buying from this shop, as it is a scam.

Cathy C.