I agree 100% that there is no good justification for "fixing" these images. We seem to all agree that playing with color balance, exposure, and the like is OK (in reasonable doses), but when they use the clone / repair tools, it all changes. This is intentional deception, and is absolutely not justified.

Now more than ever, no serious buyer can make a $50,000 decision based on examination of one image . . . must request and examine a full set of high resolution photos. Wouldn't it be nice if the auction houses just published these sets of photos, at the start, so that we don't have to make all these requests?

Jeff

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

: Jeff,

: ok asking for more pictures, but this does not justify the image
: alteration on official catalogues.

: A watch sold during an auction is an 'identified' watch that
: carries 'the auction' along his future life.
: And the catalog pictures and description are 'the' permanent
: document that can identify the watch.

: If the buyer, after 5 or 10 years of possession of the watch, gets
: tired and offers someone the watch to sell it
: (why not, bring it to an auction house), bringing the catalogue and
: the invoice to authenticate it,
: i am quite sure he'll receive a comment like "Hey, whats this
: wreck?? You swapped the dial with another watch
: and now you want to sell the damaged one."
: Just to say that the future value of the watch can be seriously
: compromised.
: I'm not sure that, in future years, the auction houses will supply
: actual pictures of watches auctioneed years before...

: Paolo
: