On May 20, Antiquorum released a statement confirming its sale to Forever Most. The release also claimed that the firm had been able to “raise SF2.2 million [$2.1 million] of new share capital and obtained an additional financing commitment of SF5 million [$4.8 million] from a private investor.”

Antiquorum’s Rohr says the ownership change will have no immediate effect on either the firm’s business, with sales scheduled as normal through the fall, or the legal action against Patrizzi. But the latter is confident that the new investors will drop the charges. Tsukahara was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, the Geneva watch trade is abuzz with rumors that Patrizzi may return to the company he founded. As for the man himself, he notes that Antiquorum “has huge image problems right now,” but he “won’t exclude a rapprochement.” And even Antiquorum’s Rohr acknowledges that “a lot can happen in the weeks ahead.”

"Time of Trouble" originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's July 2008 Table of Contents.