Michael Fine Art & Antiques — Attraction in San Francisco

Taking a ‘wrong turn’ in San Francisco’s Chinatown was the best ‘wrong turn’ we ever took! Last October, my husband and I ducked out of San Diego for a ‘long weekend getaway’ and found ourselves strolling around beautiful Chinatown. Low and behold, we got a bit wayward and needed to get our phones out for a bit of ‘map direction’ to get back to our hotel. Following siri’s advice, we turned left and … oh, my, stars,… we were staring at the most gorgeous chandeliers in a store window that I had ever seen. Michael Fine Art! I only had to do a tiny bit of sweet talking to lure my husband in the direction of their dazzling masterpieces (because their beauty also caught his eye as well.) Well, WoW! Lifechanging event happened for us, walking into Michael Fine Art, I felt as if I was instantly transported to ‘places’ all over our globe. There 100’s and 100’s of beautiful selections of art and furniture and statues and such. And the chandeliers! I walked up to their 2nd floor, and just melted. There, was our new home’s prize. A Chihuly Chandelier, in reds and oranges and yellows … arriving at this decision was so relaxing, so inviting for us, with Joseph, Aldo and Tony, the owner and family, leading the way. My husband and I not only gained a most incredible piece of art, we grew to love several of their beauties, and felt we must bring them to our new abode we were building in San Diego. But! Our home was not going to be finished until April of 2021. We had no place to store our new loves. Problem averted! Joseph and family not only stored our beautiful art for the interim, they drove it all down to us, set up scaffolding, and installed everything over a glorious weekend. Our new home will be forever filled with the most beautiful pieces of art, we could not have dreamed of owning, simply by making a wrong turn. 😊 Our new, dear friends at Michael Fine Art should be your new friends. They will create a home for you, and turn it into a castle. Pictures include our Chihuly Chandelier, our purple gemstone, agate dining room table with blue agate stands, our Chagall artwork, our Burma Foo Dogs in black jade, our Buddha, our amethyst earth heart, and many more. Thank you so much, Joseph and family, for your friendship, your kindness, and your warmth, in helping us choose such exquisite, one of a kind masterpieces, for our home sweet castle home. We give Michael Fine Art, in San Francisco, 1,000 Stars. Please go check them out, and tell them, “Renee sent you!” 😉 You’ll truly have a...

I would avoid this store like the plague. What started out as a great visit quickly turned very sour. The store owner “Uncle David” was incredibly dishonest in how he conducted business. David and his colleagues led me to believe they were giving my girlfriend and I an amazing deal on their products.

When we first walked into the store they let us know about a “big sale today” everything 50-80% off. Then because “Uncle David” liked me and my girlfriend so much, he would give us an additional discount.

After much back and forth, David offered us a deal we would be “foolish to pass up” in his own words. He wanted $1200 for a glass owl (which he said was originally $3000+ and $1500 for a globe that he said was originally $5,000.

David led us to believe he was doing us a huge favor by giving us a great deal and used every sales tactic in the book to try and get us to commit to a purchase on the spot.

We initially agreed to a deal, and I even gave them my credit card info. While we were wrapping up the transaction, they warned me not to go into any of the other similar shops located up the street because the “jealous competition” would treat us poorly. That was a huge red flag and I started to get the feeling something wasn’t quite right.

Immediately after leaving the store, within 60 seconds I found the EXACT same owl and globe being sold on Amazon for $200 and $100 respectively.

David and this group of fraudsters literally have their products listed in store for 30x the price you could find them online, and they would lead you to believe you are getting a deal when they offer you an 80% discount. The only problem is, after their “discount” their prices are still 500% higher than what is online.

What makes things worse is that they lied to me about the products being unique (they were not, they were generic and I was able to find them on Amazon within 30 seconds of looking) and they lied and told me they were doing me a big favor and giving me a great deal while they are just trying to fleece some tourists that happened to walk into their store on a whim. The staff try and act super friendly, but really they are just trying to scam you out of your hard earned money using high pressure sales tactics and giving misleading/fake discounts on products that are in reality still marked up 500%.

I have plenty of not so nice things I’d love to say about the owner and people who work here, but I will bite my tongue.

Avoid this...

One of the best buying experiences ever! Walked past the store while visiting San Francisco (Apr 2013), did a double take looking at the amazing art and furniture displays. Next thing you know my wife and I are in the massive 5 story showroom looking around in awe. Of course, I just wanted to look and then say, "Great stuff, too expensive for me, let's go!" But, I'm glad we stayed and met and talked with Barack, Tony and the team. Very friendly approach as they let us take our time as we looked at items that would go very nicely in our home back in Australia. When I raised the objection, "but, we live in Australia!" Barack repied, "Great! We've got a container on the dock right now going to Australia." Then he proceeded to offer an amazing deal on the items we thought would be awesome to own! The deal was so good even I couldn't refuse ... So, about 2 months after our trip to the USA, a big truck pulled up to our house with our shipment. Out came the 2 huge Italian paintings, Sorento living room set w/coffee table, marble top dinning room table and 6 chairs, living room dresser, oriental study desk, fine wooded jewelry box, 2 china sets, fancy love seat (my wife saw it in the elevator and said, "can I have that?") a top of the line oriental (fancy) rug, a Michael Angelo ceramic (capo de mente) and probably a few other things I've left out. I was very impressed with the packing; very secure; done by experts; no damage ... amazing! Now, we relive our wonderful shopping experience at Michaels every day as we enjoy the beautiful furniture and arts we bought. Like I said, one of the best buying...