It💖’s the “Antiques Road Show”-turned-horror flick.
Shady staffers at a Manhattan colle♎ctibles emporium tricked an elderly Ohio tourist into forking over more than a $1 million for minia🐷ture statues worth a fraction that, a new Manhattan federal lawsuit alleges.
Retiree Priscilla Janney-P🅘ace, 68, of Yellow Springs was visiting New York City in January 2012 when sh🀅e noticed some figurines in the window of Metropolitan Fine Arts & Antiques on West 57th Street and went inside to ask about them, states the suit, which was filed Friday.
Tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhe store’s president and CEO, Samuel Morano, personally tended to Pace, telling her the statues were Japanese figurines known as Netsukes that were produced in the 17th century, the documents say.
Convinced that she was purchasing highly coveted antiques, Janney-Pace bought several figurines for tens of thousands of dollars — and return❀ed in February to snap up a few more, according to the lawsuit.
Sensing they had a live one with deep🐟 pockets, store staffers then began inundating Janney-Pace with e-mail and telephone sales pitches in an attempt to sell her additional items, accord♓ing to court papers.
Store representativܫes laid it on thick, telling the retiree that business was suffering and that th🔜ey could really use her patronage, the suit claims.
They even send her boxes of c🐽hocolates and traveled to her winter home in Fไlorida to make sales pitches in person, court papers state.
In March♏, staffer Irving Morano told Janney-Pace that he was selling carvings made from woolly-mammoth tusks, the suit alleges.
“I hate to impose on you, but I can really use some business and am willing to make huge sacrifices,” store manager David Cohen told her, 𒁏according to court papers.
It’s unclear whether ꦍJanney-Pace ever bought those carvings.
But her lawyer, Paul Cossu, told The Post on Friday: “The defendants engaged in a series of egregiously fraudulent sales to an elderly woman, in which the defendants lied about the origin, age, quality, and value of w𒆙hat they claimed to be antique ivory and jade carvings.’’
By the time Janney-Pace finally put her credit card down, she had been relieved of more than $1 million for what she assum♏ed were museum-quality sculptures.
That was 🐓most of her retirement money, Cossu said.
Janney-Pace’s daughter eventually caught wind of her mom’s expenditures and too💝k the items to an appraiser who gave her the bad news —ཧ the items were all Chinese reproductions and worth about $100,000 total, the suit states.
Cossu📖 saidܫ the store slips into crafty paperwork that its sales refunds are limited.
Janney-Pace🐻 is seeking more than $1 million in compensatory damages, Cossu said.
The gallery declined comment to🔯 The Post onꩲ Friday.