Caveat Emptor, or “buyer beware,” is according to Oxford Languages, “the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.”

We note this after we received a call from a local USPS employee, who pointed us toward a flyer that was being received by most or all of Newtown addresses on August 1. The postal worker, who wished to remain anonymous, informed us they had heard the auction was a “scam.”

The flier advertises an “Important Auction” to be conducted August 11 at Newtown Community Center by Estate Liquidators LLC, based in New Jersey. The flier says the sale is “the result of another family dispute/separation of husband and wife” and has “hand signed watercolor Tarkay, hand signed Dali, hand signed Picasso, Giclee Marc Chagall, Van Gogh old print, 1920 Renoir, E. Manet, C. Money, 1880 Rembrandt ... diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, ruby rings” and “handmade Oriental and Persian rugs.” It also cautions the items to be sold “have no connection with the venue that we rent.”

We spent the next few days looking into this. Meanwhile, we heard from additional readers and residents who also questioned the validity of the event and those presenting it.

In response to an e-mail, Newtown Police Department informed us they did not “know anything about it” and directed us to contact the community center.

Newtown Community Center Director Matt Ariniello told us that the company conducting the event, Estate Liquidators, LLC, of New Jersey, had paid the licensing fee for auctions with the Town Clerk’s Office and paid the rental fee for use of space at the community center.

“We don’t vet rentals,” said Ariniello.

Online, Facebook and Reddit posts indicate a pattern of dissatisfied customers who thought they were receiving original, premium items, only to find they were reproductions. The Chicago Tribune in 2019 published a story about the company, noting a number of dissatisfied customers, including one who claimed to have received “essentially a high priced poster” instead of a hand signed original print. The customer told The Tribune he went to police, but charges were dropped after the company agreed to take a return in spite of their “all sales are final and all items were as is” policy. The article also noted that the police department in question had not received any complaints about the auction.

According to the article in The Tribune, the owner of Estate Liquidators LLC is Mohammed Mizano, 85, of New Jersey. Other research into the issue revealed a number of businesses registered to an address in Passaic, New Jersey.

Under the user name auctionman100 on Reddit, by someone who claims to be the owner of that company, responses in 2022 concerning the auctions included, “Why have there been no charges filed why have there been no Suits levied against us why have there been no convictions, etc.”

A thread about the planned event in Newtown found in the Newtown Neighbors Unite Facebook group showed that the general sentiment among those commenting is the auction is suspicious and possibly a scam. Users there hoped the Newtown Police Department and The Newtown Bee would look into it.

Without a court case or arrest, there is no way for us to determine for certain whether the complaints are true, or if the complaints are merely internet chatter from dissatisfied customers. The Newtown Bee is a community newspaper and not an investigative media organization. If The Chicago Tribune was unable to find any definitive proof of wrongdoing, The Bee with its small staff of local reporters does not have the resources to find it.

The one thing we can do with certainty is echo the warning given at the end of The Chicago Tribune story: “There are people who are less clear than they should be. Let the buyer beware.”

If you go to this or any sale event, go in with your eyes open. Ask to inspect any related documents in addition to the items themselves, as the documents, according to the Reddit posts, often identify the items as reproductions. If you are knowledgeable about the items in question, so much the better; and if you are not — be very, very careful before making any purchases.