Bob,
I trust in your sale terms and conditions, it was explained that the dagger must be returned with the confines of those conditions..same condition, seven days, etc. If so, the sale is essentially a contract, and he breached it by doing so. Buyers must understand and submit to the terms of sale, and by doing so are entering into a legal agreement. I'm sure he'll never submit to ever have disassembled it. By doing so it would be an admission of guilt. These sorts of things can become ugly.
Here's where it could get tricky..a reproduction piece which was discovered through disassembly. In that case it wouldn't matter because the dealers breach preempts the buyers breach for disassembly..fortunately, this isn't the case here.
Why didn't he want to keep the piece? Did he end up with buyers remorse after the fact?
