Man who created and sold a fake Civil War-themed desk gets probation. His victims say the pain endures. Why did he do it?

(Courtesy of John Banks'
Civil War blog)

Harold Gordon says he fashioned and sold a fake Civil War memorial desk because debilitating medical problems left him in a financial crisis. The federal government contends he methodically duped a renowned art dealer, and by extension a museum and curator -- and caused lasting harm to their reputations.

The cost of Gordon’s scheme is detailed in federal court documents filed before he was sentenced Tuesday in US District Court in Connecticut to five years’ probation and restitution.

The government had argued a sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison followed by supervised release would be within guidelines. The judge cited the retired self-employed antiques dealer's health when issuing the sentence.

Gordon, who claimed to have bought the ornate desk from the descendant of a Connecticut soldier, pleaded guilty in January 2019 to one count of wire fraud.

“Harold Gordon has caused me severe embarrassment, loss of my nationally recognized reputation as a foremost expert and an unmeasurable loss in business,” folk art expert and “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser Allan Katz said in a court document.

Gordon, 71, a master woodworker, admitted to converting a secretary desk at his Templeton, Mass., home into an extravagant fake.

According to the government, Gordon, by “engaging in mendacity at every turn,” told Katz that the circa 1876 desk was made for the family of a Connecticut soldier, John Bingham, who died at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. Gordon’s calculated efforts included providing false provenance for the piece of furniture, authorities said.

“He further falsely stated that the surviving members of the soldier’s regiment, including Wells Bingham (John’s brother), had decorated the secretary desk to give as a war memorial to the fallen soldier’s family,” prosecutors said in a presentencing memo.

Desk in Hartford in 2017 (Courtesy of John Banks' Civil War blog)

While the Bingham boys did fight with the 16^th Connecticut Infantry, the story about the desk wasn’t true. Gordon’s exacting work on the desk was convincing, down to the Civil War-era tools and materials he used in the scheme.

Standing 8-feet tall, the desk, made of walnut, oak and maple, has drawers, a bookcase and intricate artisanal touches. The handcrafted the words “Antietam” and “Sept. 17, 1862” were made from barnyard bone and Gordon fashioned a cloth star out of period fabric to make it resemble a remnant of the 16^th Connecticut’s battle flag, prosecutor asserted. A clock at the top includes the words “The Union Preserved.”

Gordon sold the desk to Katz – who had studied the desk for its authenticity – in March 2014 for $64,500. Katz made a video detailing the desk and it was put up for sale for $375,000, according to news reports, at the Winter Antiques Show in New York. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., purchased the desk for an undisclosed price in early 2015. Katz later paid another $25,000 to Gordon because of the tidy profit from that sale, prosecutors said.

(Courtesy of John Banks’ Civil War blog)

At the time, the museum said it was “thrilled to add this stunning piece” to its collection of folk art and Civil War-era items.

Civil War blogger John Banks, who has followed the story of the desk for several years, detailed what’s known about the Bingham brothers in a 2011 post. The East Haddam residents were just teenagers when they joined the Union army. John, 17, son of a farmer, died in the fighting at a cornfield at Antietam. Wells survived the war

The story of the amazing artifact unraveled in 2018, according to reports, when the editor of the Maine Antique Report noticed the Bingham desk appeared to be similar to an unadorned desk photographed at Gordon’s home. The woodworker then admitted the desk’s story was bogus.

Gordon was boastful about the fraudulent piece and said that he “had created a new art form,” the government contended. “It’s the apotheosis of my own making,” Gordon said in an interview, according to a March 2018 New York Times article.

Detail of Abraham Lincoln (John Banks)

In a memo filed with the court, a federal public defender detailed a litany of health conditions, including a stroke, Gordon has endured. “In 2014, at the one of the lowest points in his life, he sold a prized possession: a Victorian-era secretary desk which he had elaborately decorated and for which he had created a semi-fictional historical backstory.”

Gordon apologized Tuesday via video conference, according to the Hartford Courant.

His lawyers argued that when he first began work on the fake, he had no intention of selling it. He worked from a desk that indeed dated to the Civil War period, they stated.

“He put the piece in his living room and intended to keep it. But when his medical conditions intensified in 2012, impeding his ability to work, and his medical expenses mounted, he grew desperate,” they argued in documents.

Katz, in his written statement, said Gordon “has caused me severe embarrassment, loss of my nationally recognized reputation as a foremost expert and an unmeasurable loss in business.” He said the master craftsman spent two years working to deceive him and basked in the attention he gave in interviews about his fraudulent handiwork.

Gordon’s lawyers have said their client was not motivated by money or prestige.

Katz made full restitution to the Hartford museum, which said forgers like Gordon do great damage to the cultural marketplace. “The opportunism of this forgery was both craven and bald in its intent to maximize financial gain and to ensnare a number of institutions and organizations in the process,” the CEO for the Wadsworth Atheneum said.

The unidentified curator involved in the transaction no longer works for the museum.

“Mr. Gordon has deeply impaired my credibility as a scholar and curator. As a result of Mr. Gordon’s crimes, my achievements and relationship with the Wadsworth Atheneum have been completely incinerated. I will never be able to return to this institution that once valued my service and applauded my efforts as a curator,” she wrote.

The Picket reached out Thursday to Gordon’s federal public defender but did not hear back. His lawyers wrote that Gordon had no previous criminal history and he hopes to make restitution to Katz.

The desk had been on exhibit at the Hartford museum for about three years before the ruse was detected. The Wadsworth Atheneum said Friday it had no new comment on the matter. It confirmed it not longer has the desk.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer ordered Gordon to also pay $84,500 in restitution to Katz, who retained the item. The latter said in a 2019 interview that he and his wife “plan on donating it to an institution that might be receptive to having it.” 

According to the Courant, Meyer said he would have sent Gordon to prison if it were not for his health problems, which include cardiovascular and Parkinson’s disease.