When New York City investment banker Bradford J. May and wife Risa cut a deal with a Jupiter, Fla., man to buy an original Louis Comfort Tiffany lamp last February, they never thought they would find themselves in Palm Beach Circuit Court.
May, who located the 16-inch Poinsettia Tiffany lamp through the Internet auction site eBay last January, bid $11,000 for it. When no one met the auction reserve on the lamp, May contacted the lamp’s seller, Ilkka Yrjola, and the pair agreed on Feb. 2 to a price of $16,000 — about $30,000 less than retail.
