{"id":168143,"date":"2021-02-01T21:28:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T18:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ny-antique-dealer-admits-to-selling-illegal-mounted-leopard\/"},"modified":"2021-02-01T21:28:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T18:28:33","slug":"ny-antique-dealer-admits-to-selling-illegal-mounted-leopard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ny-antique-dealer-admits-to-selling-illegal-mounted-leopard\/","title":{"rendered":"#NY antique dealer admits to selling illegal mounted leopard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#NY antique dealer admits to selling illegal mounted leopard<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/02\/antique-dealer-79.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>An upstate New York antique dealer \u2014 whose rare collections have been featured in Hollywood hits \u2014 has pleaded guilty to selling an illicit mounted leopard to an undercover agent.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Merisola, who owns Buffalo luxury vintage store CooCooU27, pleaded guilty Friday in Ohio federal court to one misdemeanor count of violating the Endangered Species Act by selling the 100-year-old specimen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI bought this out of a gallery in New York City, and I was under the impression it was grandfathered in,\u201d Merisola, 62, told The Post on Monday. \u201cI\u2019ve never been in trouble in my life. It was poor judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An undercover special agent with the US Fish and Wildlife Service spotted the taxidermied cat on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/coocoou27\/?hl=en\">Merisola\u2019s Instagram account<\/a> in 2019 and posed as a customer interested in purchasing it, according to court papers.<\/p>\n<p>Merisola sold the animal to the agent for $4,200 \u2014 which landed him in handcuffs.<\/p>\n<p>He now faces up to one year in prison, but he said his lawyers are trying to negotiate a probation-only plea bargain that would require him to pay a $7,500 fine.<\/p>\n<p>Hollywood set decorator Shane Vieau told<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.architecturaldigest.com\/story\/these-top-secret-vintage-stores-set-the-scene-for-guillermo-del-toros-the-shape-of-water\"> Architectural Digest<\/a> that Merisola\u2019s sprawling Buffalo warehouse is one of his favorite sources for pieces from the 1950s to 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Merisola\u2019s extensive midcentury collection was featured in the 2017  Academy Award-winning film \u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d and his antique medical lighting and scientific props were used in the horror flick \u201cA Quiet Place.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of major motion pictures,\u201d Merisola said.\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/02\/01\/ny-antique-dealer-admits-to-selling-illegal-mounted-leopard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#NY antique dealer admits to selling illegal mounted leopard&#8221; An upstate New York antique dealer \u2014 whose rare collections have been featured in Hollywood hits \u2014 has pleaded guilty to selling an illicit mounted leopard to an undercover agent. Michael Merisola, who owns Buffalo luxury vintage store CooCooU27, pleaded guilty Friday in Ohio federal court&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/02\/antique-dealer-79.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[91587,91661,74359,73083,5021],"class_list":["post-168143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2-1-21","tag-antiques","tag-buffalo-new-york","tag-endangered-species","tag-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}