Provenance, what is it worth?

[David]

Originally Posted by Swordfish

Also there is a hard rule that every collector should learn at first: you can trust neither any antique dealer nor any auction expert

While there are no doubt many nefarious dealers in the world of antique arms i find the extreme of you statement patently untrue. I buy the vast majority of my antique keris for just a couple of trusted dealers. These are relationships built over time and i trust these dealers implicitly. I am sorry that you have yet to find such a dealer for your own needs, but i can assure you that they do exist out there.
I am sure that what ever the reasons for someone buying an item for 39,000 euro that was clearly revealed as being partially replaced, stupidity was not among them. You simply don't have that kind of money to spend on purely luxury items like antique armor by being stupid. The rich do as they please with their money, who are we to judge? We will never know the buyers reasoning, but i am sure he had one. Maybe he just liked it. Is there some reason that it bothers you so much?