Antiquities Dealer Sues Over Book on the Alamo – RisePEI

Alexander McDuffie, a Texas-based antiquities supplier, and Joseph Musso, an artist and historian, are suing the authors of a guide in regards to the Alamo for allegedly suggesting that they faked artifacts and inflated their costs.

The authors of Neglect the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Delusion are Bryan Burrough, a reporter for Self-importance Honest; Chris Tomlinson, a columnist for the Houston Chronicle; and Jason Stanford, a political marketing consultant and communications officer. Penguin Random Home and the newspaper Texas Month-to-month have additionally been named as defendants.

Neglect the Alamo is in regards to the origins of the legend of the Battle of the Alamo, the methods wherein the story was modified and twisted in the course of the Jim Crow period, and the way revisionists have been making an attempt to set the document straight on the precise occasions regarding this Texan origin delusion.

“The Plaintiffs on this case made one mistake: they trusted a reporter who got here to them asking a couple of topic on which they’ve a great deal of ardour and experience: authenticating artifacts that may have a connection to the Texas Revolution and the Battle of the Alamo,” reads the grievance. “Though that reporter promised that he would give up the challenge earlier than he would permit his coauthors to say something adverse in regards to the Plaintiffs or their work, the guide that was finally revealed … contained false statements, mischaracterizations, and vital omissions.”

The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Melynda Nuss, mentioned that she and her shoppers had been at present unable to remark.

In the middle of the guide, the authors included a bit on memorabilia from the battle, and that is the place McDuffie and Musso got here in as resident specialists on artifacts from that period.

The guide got here out June 8, 2021. Previous to the guide’s publication, Texas Month-to-month revealed an excerpt that got here with the headline “Come and Faux It?” when it appeared in print. McDuffie allegedly filed requests for corrections with Dan Goodgame, the editor of the story, however the lawsuit says that McDuffie was unhappy with the corrections Goodgame was keen to make. The article was ultimately up to date to incorporate many corrections.

The guide and the article allegedly steered that McDuffie might have added an inscription to a knife that would have belonged to William Barrett Travis, a lieutenant colonel within the Texas Military, and that he had a powerful relationship with Alfred Van Fossen, an antiquities supplier with a repute for promoting questionable artifacts.

“The truth is,” the grievance says “Van Fossen ended their relationship by stealing a portray from McDuffie and promoting it.”

Dan Goodgame, the editor at Texas Monthly, believes they made enough corrections.

“Earlier than publishing an in depth excerpt from a brand new guide, Neglect the Alamo, Texas Month-to-month fastidiously checked the info in that excerpt,” wrote Goodgame in an emailed assertion. “After we revealed it, Alex McDuffie and Joseph Musso informed us of a number of passages that they thought of inaccurate or unfair. After additional analysis, we corrected just a few factual errors within the excerpt and allowed the plaintiffs to voice extra of their views on different points in dispute. We performed our work fastidiously and pretty, and we intend to make that case in court docket.”

The grievance alleges that the guide significantly harmed McDuffie’s enterprise. In response to the go well with, McDuffie made $150,000 per 12 months earlier than the guide got here out. Within the 12 months after its publication, he made $98,000.

Musso is just not a supplier and thus has has not confronted damages to any enterprise, however the go well with claims that his character has come into query because of the excerpt.